Blood of the Azure
by DarkestVampire
Summary: Shortly before the events of Chronophantasma, Kokonoe discovers the ruins of a large military building in England using an abandoned spy satillite... but instead of finding lost technology or records, she finds a vampire, willing to serve her. And not a second too late, because neither her nor Tager could withstand the devastation that follows with the last turn of the Wheel...
1. Prolog - Relicts

The modified stealth bomber, specially designed and outfitted to carry Iron Tager, slowed down, indicating to him that they were nearing their destination.

Throughout the entire flight, as usual, there had been radio silence to avoid detection by the NOL. However, unlike with most missions, this one had been so secretive that Kokonoe didn´t even tell him about the mission parameters before they took off. Like a loyal soldier, he didn´t question his superior`s decision, but it was getting on his artificial nerves that he had no idea what he was getting into. Supposedly, he would have to wait until his deployment until he knew what was going on.

The red light in the cargo bay turned green, and with a flip of a switch, the bomb shaft opened and released him downwards, jettisoned by a small explosive charge. For the next twelve seconds, he closed his eyes and prayed for the best, before another explosion caused the jetpack he carried on his back to kick in, and all he received was a gentle nudge downwards as he landed.

Throwing his empty jetpack aside, he immidiently turned on his radio to call his home base.

"Kokonoe, this is Tager. Do you read me?" He asked, the answer came promptly.

"I hear you, you bucket of bolts. You`re thirty minutes late, what the hell happened?" The angry voice on the other end of the line was obviously Kokonoe, not in the best of moods. He sighed.

"There was some turbulence, we encountered it in mid-flight and there was no way around it, so the pilot slowed down to avoid any mechanical problems. Deployment and landing was executed without problems."

"Good. Do you see a large building nearby?" She asked, still not explaining anything.

Tager looked around; all he saw with normal sight mode was trees and some wild meadows. On the farther sight mode however, the ruin of a fairly large building complex was evident. Scanning it further revealed a heavily fortified base of similar size and build quality as the Pentagon. Land mines and traces of metal everywhere in the ground suggested the same thing – this used to be a military base of epic proportions.

"I see it. Is that what I think it is?" He said, without believing to hear a positive answer.

"Unless you peeked into my mission profile, no. Listen, we have no evidence supporting that any of the land mines were deactivated. Try to find a break in the pattern- that has to be where the road used to be. That should be your safest way to the mansion." Tager grunted in response to this. "What's the matter, you big pile of scrap? Tired already?!"

"No, but I think it would be time for some mission parameters. The first rule of robotics applies here, Kokonoe- Even as a cyborg, I`d like to know why I endanger myself of being destroyed." As much as Ars Magus was little more than discomforting to his ablative armor, century-old landmines were a different story. Losing a leg or more was a definite possibility here.

"Guh... fine. But remember, this is first class top secret activity. Don´t talk about it to anyone, even after completing the mission, until I tell you." This really had to be something important. Otherwise, this method of secrecy would be simply ridiculous. "I understand." Tager responded truthfully. "Okay, so listen up. Recently we`ve managed to bring one of the old GPS satellites back on, something we do every once in a while to get a better picture of what the world looks like today without having to endanger ourselves with seithr. Thing is, near the old ruins of London, we`ve discovered a speck of land which should be just part of the forest… instead, there`s this huge military fortress you see before you. Judging by the location and the general layout, this might be the abandoned headquarters of the so called Hellsing Organization, a group of specialized vampire hunters who operated until 2078, where the government declared it was against the universal rights of species to hunt down vampires the way they do. But not only did Hellsing have access to England's most advanced technology, unlimited funds and resources as well as universal rights to act accordingly, they also supposedly kept vampires as their slaves to fight other vampires. One of them, named Alucard, was claimed to be among the most powerful vampires to ever walk the earth, capable of leveling cities entirely on his own." Tager listened carefully, as he detected another string of madness and lust for power in his creator's thoughts. The most powerful biological weapon ever, her slave… if this wasn`t a wet dream of hers in some way, he didn´t know what would be. "Your brainwave spiked there, Tager, but I can tell what you´re thinking. No, I don`t intend to take control over him. He`s been missing for nearly two centuries now… instead, focus on anything useful. They had a whole private library on vampires and methods to detain them, an arsenal of anti-vampire weapons, technology, and vehicles. Your job is simply to see what kind of shape the building is in and determine what we can salvage from it, if anything at all, and to clear a safe passage to the building if possible. That's it."

This sounded more reasonable, though he couldn`t stop thinking that she just wanted to get rid of Rachel Alucard. "Understood. But... what about the second vampire?" He asked, partially just curious.

"We have no idea what happened to her. Probably killed, maybe she escaped and hides somewhere. Maybe they buried her alive there to make sure she doesn`t fall into the wrong hands. Listen, she`s not a mission priority, but if you can salvage her, do it." Tager sighed again.

"Understood, even though that gives me a bad feeling inside... TR-00001 begins the mission."

A way through the minefield was easily cleared with his large steps, as the mines were sparse and some even nonfunctional. A clear pathway however was missing, probably intentional to let the resources stored in the mansion stay in the mansion. At the large portal gate of the building, Tager had to apply serious force to open it, as it had been barred with two solid steel beams from the other side and no windows were in reach to enter otherwise. Eventually, the hinges of the doors broke before the beams did, and the portal came crashing down on the other side.

"Kokonoe, this is Tager. I`m inside, but they really wanted to keep people out." He reported on his radio, stepping further in. "I`m detecting various traps inside the building, tripwires and automatic turrets. The minefield outside is completely closed, whatever path they usually had is closed off… in addition to that, the door was barred with carbon steel beams." A giggle of delight was heard from the cat girl, making him shiver. Why was she so happy about this?

"Alright, go ahead, but be careful not to trigger anything. Try sweeping the building from the bottom up, chances are the lower levels are in better shape than the rest."

With these clear instructions, Tager had no intention to object. He moved towards the small staircase, big enough for one person, which led downwards. He sighed, realizing he would have to squeeze his massive body downwards… and eventually, back up again.

"This is a bad idea… oh well. Orders are orders." With that said, he started to move downwards sideways, slowly and carefully not to slip or break off a stone, which the ancient stairs consisted of. Either would spell disaster, as it would cause his 550 kilograms of mass to roll down and crush whatever might be at the end of the staircase. At the same time, he had to avoid being stuck inbetween two walls, as well as getting a claustrophobic panic attack.

After what seemed to be hours, he finally arrived on solid ground, deep below… a giant, empty hallway stretched on before him, ending with a solid wall that seemed like a door to him.

The other doors led to empty bedrooms, most of them meaningless as nobody lived here anymore, but the door intrigued him. Although implausibly weak, he detected a lifesign behind it.

"Lifesigns behind a wall of solid rock..?" He asked himself, but Kokonoe listened in as well.

"Tager, can you break through that thing?" She asked, seemingly out of breath. He knew why, this was, scientifically speaking, impossible. Tager nodded as a response. "I think so, but that would seriously compromise the structural integrity. The room might collapse if I do that."

"Risks aside, do it. We can still retrieve you should that happen." What a comforting thought that would be, being buried under tons of rock waiting for Kokonoe`s men to dig him out, Tager thought.

Shrugging it off, he brought his power reserves up to 50% and activated one of his magnetic fists.

"FIST OF STEEL!" He shouted, unleashing a power similar to a car crash, which shattered most of the wall. The walls surrounding him didn´t move an inch, however the dust of centuries greeted him upon entering the sealed chamber.

"Activating nightvision." He said to himself, as the room was tinted green for his eyes. The only thing in sight was a simple book on a stand, as well as a wooden coffin, big enough for an adult person. No doubt the lifesigns he picked up came from that. "I`m activating my scanners…. Hm. That's strange. No brain activity whatsoever, the radiological decay brought radiation down to the unmeasureable, the temperature of the body is at ten degrees Celsius… but it metabolizes. It's like it's alive, even though it's not."

Kokonoe audibly nodded. "Sounds like a vampire to me. Are you able to salvage it?"

Tager cringed at the thought of climbing the staircase with the coffin in his hands, but agreed. "I think so, yes. There`s also a book nearby, but otherwise the room is completely empty. Must be something important if they hide it here."

"Got it. Take it with you; it might be a manual or something. Great job, Tager, we`ll pick you up as soon as possible… we`ll have to secure her before the library finds out about it."

Well, that was a short mission; Tager thought to himself whilst looking at the coffin. With contents, it was probably two-hundred kilos heavy and with its size, lifting it over his head was the only option to bring it upstairs. He probably had no time to climb the staircase a second time, so for now, he stuck the book between his teeth while carrying the coffin over his head, slowly inching his way upstairs… another nightmare for claustrophobics followed.

As he arrived on the ground level, he was sweaty and twitching from holding the heavy coffin for far too long. His arms ached, but he carried on, now finally able to lower them again. The next challenge was to get this package through the minefield, as he could hear the stealth aircraft landing nearby.

"Please let this work…" He said to himself, having placed the book on the coffin now to prevent himself from drooling on it. One foot at a time, he followed the exact same path as before, while one wrong step could potentially detonate both him and the dead body he was carrying. A click caught him off as his foot sunk into the primer of a mine.

"Shit…!"

Nanoseconds of fear followed, but eventually, nothing happened. A dud, gone bad after two hundred years. Tager exhaled deeply, then carried on, as two men, copilot and loading officer, approached him.

"We`re taking the package, Tager. " The officer said, but Tager looked at him with a dumbfound stare.

"I don`t want to insult you, but this thing weighs more than you do. Let me carry it to the plane myself." This convinced him instantly as he stepped back in surprise. Slowly, he nodded, leading him to the parked aircraft. "Kokonoe is expecting you back too. You`re too much of a beacon to their scanners, we don`t want any attention."

Tager switched on his radio. "Kokonoe, not that I want to judge you, but is it wise to send me back this early? Who knows what else we can salvage right here and now."

An angry grunt was heard. "You have your orders, Tager! Get back here ASAP! Shebalves have been started to investigate our spy airplane… we need to leave now or they`ll find it!"

"Got it. Aborting mission." With this, he loaded himself and the coffin into the airplane, which closed its cargo bay almost instantly. The two men boarded it as soon as he was in, and with a rough quickstart, they were off. Radio silence ruled once more.

The bomber still rolled into its position, but Kokonoe already ran up to the loading bay to receive her present. Tager, after opening the doors, carried the coffin out and onto a trolly for easy transportation before handing Kokonoe the book.

"There, i´ve done what I could, but I really couldn´t salvage anything more." He said, but Kokonoe grinned in response.

"Heck, there`s not much more you could`ve gotten. Most likely they`ve taken everything that was valureable as they abandoned the base. Anyway, you can take a break now, we`ll try to recover whatever´s left later… and i´m going to get a good look on my specimen here." With that, she looked at the coffin, a plain old wooden box with a metal cross on it; Nothing that would be used in a burial, unless it was meant to be burned and turned into ashes. Slowly, she opened the lid, having to apply force due to the wood rotting together over the years… the sight was something she expected. A female corpse, half decomposed into the state of a mummy, with whitened hair and clothes that also seemed like they`ve seen better days.

"Okay, bring that thing to lab number three, and get me a few blood bags. No idea how many i`ll need to bring her back to life… and a change of clothes, she`ll need it." Kokonoe ordered her men around, while she already went through the options in her head. Either she would have to destroy her, or she would be killed, or she was unwilling to help, or she would help to fight Terumi.

Personally, Kokonoe hoped for the last option.


	2. The Beast Awakens

_A/N: Wow, i did not expect so much feedback for a crossover story! Thanks for everyone who reviewed and favorited the story, i´ll make sure to update as often as i can, but as it is with me, often i just don`t find the time to update often and after a while i lose interest in a story, then it dies... _  
_So lets hope i´ll make this one live through to the end.  
_

_Without further delay, here`s chapter two of Blood of the Azue - Seras`s Awakening.  
_

* * *

Placed on a large, solid operating table was the coffin, open with the lid removed for further examination.

As if she was taking serious precautions, Kokonoe allowed no one but herself to approach it. The risks, she said, were too high that once the vampire came alive it would devour everything blood-related until its hunger was satisfied.

Ten blood bags, rowed up in a wine cooler stood next to it, while Kokonoe was studying the corpse. Five whole liters should be enough to "refuel" the creature.

The corpse itself proved to be the most interesting thing. While her hands were cuffed with a single metal frame and her legs were tied together with many leather straps, no signs of resistance could be found anywhere. The coffin wasn´t locked, and given the time it took for someone to completely dry out, she could`ve probably freed herself. Yet the restraints were undamaged.

As if she was willingly imprisoned to die.

Kokonoe shook her head to get those thoughts out of her head. That`d lead to nothing. She needed scientific facts, and fact was, she was alive. Barely, but alive…

Her hand grasped one of the ice-cold blood bags and tugged on the straw to get it open, accidently ripping it off- the red sauce gushed out, spraying over the dead body.

"Shit." She cursed, about to toss the bag away, before she noticed that a freakishly long tongue lashed out of the mummified mouth, licking at the drips of blood on the creature`s face. The rest of the blood, sprayed over the body, seemed to be absorbed by her very skin.

"Blood…" a faint whisper, barely human was heard. "Blood..!" Now it became a growl, and in a sudden stroke of fear, Kokonoe tossed the half empty bag at the creature. Sharp fangs pierced it, catching the bag in midair before sucking it dry like a dead rat. It was then when Kokonoe had first doubts about what she was doing here…

"Give me... more…" Slowly, the voice became clearer, more humanlike, and as if in trance, Kokonoe obeyed, tossing another bag, which was ripped apart by the fangs. Amazingly, the more blood was absorbed, the more defined the features of the body became. Before it was more of a skeleton than anything else, with grey skin and no eyes to speak of, now, the flesh became firm, color returning to the skin and veins visibly pumping the red fluids through the body. Even the hair, as white as it was, slowly became a distinct shade of blond, while she slowly rose up, hair covering her face. It seemed she slowly gained her senses along with the shape of her body.

Her hands undid the massive steel restraint as if it was made of straw, then ripped the leg restrains away before grasping another blood bag herself, drinking it in seconds.

"…so are you just going to drink and drink or are you going to say something?" Kokonoe regained her senses herself, staring at the woman before her, her short blonde hair still covering most of her face, but her curvy, pale skinned body was reformed as if she was at the peak of her youth. Hearing this, she stopped and turned to Kokonoe, tossing the bag aside.

"I`m sorry if that bothers you. Give me another minute and that last blood packet and I'll be answering all your questions." She said, in a normal human voice with a slight British accent which made Kokonoe snicker inside. On the outside, she remained her stern expression and huffed.

"Fine. Make it quick, I've got a lot to ask… and a lot to tell." As soon as those words left her mouth, the final blood bag was emptied and added to the pile, before the woman stroked her hair back to reveal her face- one far too cute for someone who seemed so threatening a minute ago. As softly shaped as her face was, the rest of her body stood even to that. Hips, thighs and an impressive bust instantly reminded Kokonoe of her former assistant Litchi Faye Ling, although she hated to admit it.

The thing that received the most attention by her, however, was the left arm. While the right was just as normal as one would expect, the right was in a bizarre shade of red and black, constantly shifting and flickering and was obviously unnatural. As the vampire noticed her look, it shifted from its demonic appearance right back to looking like a normal arm.

"Sorry about that. It's a long story." She simply said, looking directly at her with red, slightly glowing eyes. "I wasn`t supposed to be revived... Hellsing is gone, and it should never return. But now since it happened, I suppose i`ll make the best of it. Are you... my new master?"

Kokonoe blinked in surprise. "Eh? I`m… not really into that whole dominance shit, if that's what you´re asking. Now-"

She looked at her more intensively. "I`m too dangerous to be free. I need a master to take responsibility for my actions- to feed me and give me orders. In return, I'm absolutely and unconditionally loyal to him or her, and will carry out my orders, whatever they may be."

Kokonoe´s thinking gears started to turn. Absolute dominance over such a powerful creature at the expense of blood, which she could just clone for an infinite supply at practically zero cost. Very tempting indeed, but something told her there had to be a catch. "So what are the conditions to be your… master?"

She shrugged in response. "I only ever had one, so I can`t really tell… only one comes to mind. Be human." A little smirk appeared on her face, a hint at her cat features. "And I mean in the sense of 'don`t be a monster', not 'be physically human'. So long as you don`t murder innocent people for a living and or eat them, I'm fine with whoever is my master in the end."

"I`ve got the last remaining supply of nuclear weapons in my basement. Does that count as inhuman?" A negative answer followed. "Nope. So long as you don`t use them, I don´t think so. Hell, Britain was about to USE their missiles to wipe out London while I was trying my best to protect the survivors, and I was still following their orders for seventy eight years afterwards."

A satisfied nod from Kokonoe was the response to that. "So how do I become your master then…?"

"It's all in the book. Basically just a simple blood ritual and a few enchanting words- I don`t really believe in magic, but apparently that stuff works. And if it works, it has to exist, right?" A grin was exchanged for another by Kokonoe. "Yes. Especially since I know some magic myself. In that case- yes, I shall be your master and you shall lick my boots for all eternity!"

In a stroke of madness, she laughed manically just to amuse herself, which was followed by an annoying sigh from the vampire. "I guess I really can`t be surprised that everyone I ever meet is insane to some degree. Fine with me, let me know when you´re ready to do that bonding ritual and get it over with." She was about to climb back into the coffin, when Kokonoe grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"Hey, hold your horses, there! I`m not complaining about the show, but I think you could use a change of clothes." With that she pointed over to a small pile of clothes, where as her new accomplice looked over herself and found that fabric, even if it's made of 90% polyester, didn`t last for one and a half centuries. Rips and tears were on all moving parts such as armpits and shoulders, and some moths apparently found their way into the coffin and chewed a few little holes. "…right. I`ll get right on that."

Five minutes later, she was dressed in a pair of hotpants held by a belt that crossed over on the front, as well as a black tank top and a jacket made of the same jeans material as the pants, with free shoulders and a high collar. On her legs were nearly identical thigh high socks in a black color, as well as brand new, Kevlar reinforced boots with metal clips for shoelaces and steel tips. The legs of her pants as well as the arms and midsection of her jacket were held in place by separate leather straps, and she wore shooting gloves as hand protection.

"Nice outfit. Suits you." Kokonoe said to her, only half interested. "But you still haven`t told me your name yet." Since she started talking, Kokonoe had a dozen of insults and rude words in her mouth, waiting to be released, but so far she was still too scared of this creature to spell them out. Even though she seemed nice, it was not a pussified vampire like Rachel Alucard. She ate people, afterall.

"I was waiting for you to tell me yours, honestly." She responded with a slight surprise. "But okay, I'll start. I`m Seras Victoria, former police officer, then Captain in the ranks of the Hellsing organization… my medals and badges and all that junk should be in the coffin somewhere." She shrugged, sighing a bit. "Doesn`t really mean much, seeing how Hellsing was disbanded, but I'm still proud to be the first non-human commanding officer Hellsing ever had."

Kokonoe looked at her with some respect now, but also saw new possibilities for herself. A commanding officer… that means she must`ve gotten some pretty good training. A lot of experience, too… something which couldn`t be said for some other people under her command. And earning medals meant she`d been doing a damn good job at whatever it was she`d done.

"Fine enough for me. My name is Professor Kokonoe, and you`re in one of my laboratories under jurisdiction of the research organization Sector Seven, the single largest corporate entity on the planet- and the only one not under governmental command. In other words- we fight the current world government, because they`ve been corrupted from the top down. It's a long story, but in short: their current leaders include an insane mentalist slash puppeteer slash theoretical physicist, a man who`s about seventy times worse than Hitler and a little girl who I really can`t get my head around, but has to be evil down to the very core. Which of course lead to genocidal orders for police and armed forces, general suspicion of the public and so forth."

Seras blinked multiple times, dumbfounded by what she just heard. "…what in the bloody hell did I miss? Sounds like the worst of the worst imaginable futures happened."

Kokonoe cringed in response. "Please don´t say 'bloody' when you´re a vampire. It leads to a whole lot of jokes you don´t want to hear as a woman."

She shook her head with a sigh. "I´ve lived for nearly a century. Trust me, I've heard them all."

A short tour through the Sector Seven base later, Seras still didn`t get the most of what happened. Something about a dark war, the world mostly uninhabitable, terrible things happened and now they were approaching a dystopia fast.

She only listened halfway, letting Kokonoe do her thing, while she walked behind her, injesting the sterile smell of a scientific laboratory, the refined, recycled air not adding any odor to it in the slightest. One good thing came out of being in an underground base – She didn`t have to bother with the sun.

All this non-caring eventually paid her back as she rammed face first into what seemed to be a mass of muscles.

„Tager! Damnit, why does everybody run right into you?!" Kokonoe snarled, stopping dead in her tracks to focus on the two crash victims. „You`d think you would make a good enough beacon, but no, people just don´t watch where they´re going anymore!"

Tager shrugged his massive shoulders and stepped back to let Seras gain some distance. „Actually, i was just going to report something to you. Noel Vermillion and Private Nanaya have returned."

A sigh of relief, as well as a growl of anger came from the catgirl. „Good. Where the hell were they?"

He shrugged again. „They didn`t say that. Actually they didn´t say anything, except that they wanted to see you."

Kokonoe nodded and got going almost instantly. „Good. I`ll talk to them. It`d better be important." Without even caring for her new subordinate, she just walked off, leaving Seras behind.

„Wait... what about me?!" Seras shouted after her, but to no avail. Anger seemed to cloud her mind to the point where she couldn`t hear the vampire anymore. „Great, now what."

Tager looked down at her, almost half a meter, before scratching his head. „Well, i don´t think you`ll be too useful on your own here. Just run after her, that`ll be the best option right now."

„Okay... wait, eh... i`ve seen a lot of things in my time, but you´re something i haven`t seen." Seras said, staring at the huge cyborg. „Oh well. I suppose we`ll meet another time." With that, she rushed after Kokonoe.. it was a good opportunity to test if she wasn`t rusty, so she chased her with near supersonic speed, her movements becoming a blue blurry line for any human eyes before she caught up with Kokonoe seconds later.

„Huh. I still got it." Seras said, flexing an arm with a grin, before looking at her soon-to-be Master. „Hey, what gives? We weren`t done yet."

Kokonoe, while still blinking how Seras nearly broke the sound barrier getting here, was returning to senses rather quickly. „I have buisness to do, you know? I can´t concentrate all my efforts and my time on one specimen, so if you`re that greedy when it comes to attention, i`m afraid we won´t be doing buisness together."

Seras sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. „Got it, got it. But i just got here, so if you leave me alone i´ll be totally lost, you know?"

Noel and Makoto stared at the two in complete and utter confusion. Who was that woman? Why the hell could she move so fast? Where did she get the self esteem from to talk back to Kokonoe?!

„We`ll discuss this later, okay? First things first." Kokonoe turned to Noel, her face lost all compassion she previously had. „WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?! You were supposed to ASK before running away, you spoiled brat!"

Noel ducked down and hid behind Makoto. „But.. but.. but i had to check if Tsubaki was alright..! I heard she was in really big trouble, and... and she was with Hazama the last time i saw her, and..."

„AND I DONT CARE! I wouldn`t have said no if you would`ve just ASKED! Instead, i had this white haired douchebag run all across the land to find your sorry ass! Where is he, anyways?!"

Noel, while on the verge of crying, blinked twice. „Eh? You... you mean Ragna was looking for me?"

Makoto sighed, tired of being abused as a meat shield. „We haven`t seen him, Professor. We really just headed straight to where we could meet Tsubaki, did what we could and left again."

The pink haired woman groaned, then resigned. „Fine, fine, FINE! Just fricking tell me the next time, okay?!" With that said, she grabbed her radio transmitter, which suspiciously looked like an old cellphone, and hailed Tager.

„Listen, you pile of junk, do you have anything to do right now?! No? Then get your ass to the comm building and tell Ragna he can stop looking." Without waiting for his answer, she just hung up. „Now, you two! Do something productive! Anything at all! Actually, i got something to do for you- Show Seras here around- Then i won´t have to do it myself. Yes, you do that. I`ll be in my lab." Kokonoe took off again, stomping off into the opposite direction she came from, while Noel stopped sniffing and watering her eyes, instead, she stared at Seras in a very specific manner.

Makoto didn´t notice this at first and instead, smirking brightly as if nothing happened, held out her hand for a greeting. „Well, hiho there, Sister! I`m Makoto Nanaya, Private First Class, but... eh, i guess i`m more of an 'errand girl' than anything else. Tager does all the major stuff."

Seras smiled a bit, finally seeing someone normal... despite the animal features, which she just overlooked. „Hello to you too. I`m Seras Victoria, and... i guess i´ve met 'Tager' down the hallway before." She didn´t want to think about that encounter, but she had to admit, the giant mountain of muscles smelled somewhat nice.

Then she finally noticed the odd look Noel was giving her as she was about to introduce herself to her as well. „...whats with her?"

„Eh?" Makoto looked over to her friend, and with just that one glance, she knew what was going on. „Ah, don´t mind it. Its just breast envy."

„Why is everyone bigger than me..? What have i done to deserve this?!"

Now she really started to cry, and Seras rubbed her temples with a sigh. So far, she met five people, and only one of them was not mental in some way or form. This was going to be interesting.


	3. Black Hearts, Part 1

_**A/N**: Why, hello there! Chapter 3 is here, and boy is it a wild ride!_

_This will be the first part of two or three, mainly because i`m trying to get these chapters out as soon as they are ready and i´m trying to keep them at 2500-3000 words for an easy, but satisfiying read.  
Now, the two new reviewers i`ve gotten asked me two questions, which i`d like to adress here as well:  
_

_1: Is this Anime Seras or Manga Seras?  
_

_Its Manga Seras. I thought that was clear, since she has the blood arm that only Manga Seras has, but yes, its Manga Seras. I don´t like the whiney, crying Anime Seras very much.  
_

_2: How often will you update?  
_

_I`m planning a weekly update, it just so happened that these three chapters were done or halfway done before i released the first chapter.  
Lets see how long i can maintain that schedule...  
_

_So without futher ado, onward with the chapter numbero tres!  
_

* * *

A beastkin, a Murakumo and a Nosferatu walk into a bar…

That was a brilliant description of the situation they found themselves in, if the top secret laboratory of Sector Seven would count as a bar. Instead, they just walked through the hallways of the bunker, Makoto showing the new arrival all the different rooms, sections and some important people to make it easier for her to fit in.

While Noel still eyed the new arrival with suspicion and envy, Makoto, as usual, was about to bind a new friendship with the century old vampire and did her best to fill her in on the details of the past.

Unfortunely, Makoto wasn`t a history teacher and didn`t ace in that subject either, but it was better than nothing.

"So, let me get this straight…" Seras said, trying to wrap her head around this. "Out of nowhere, some black beast appeared and devoured 80% of the human population, rendered the world uninhabitable for centuries, but in the other hand that residue turned out to be a great source of power for electricity, weapons, vehicles et cetera… okay. So then these six heroes appeared, also out of nowhere, and killed it through new weaponry. Then these heroes basically disappeared from sight again and this NOL organization who built the guns for these heroes took over the world while they weren`t looking. Brilliant." She sighed deeply. "And you´d think humans would learn with time."

"Well, that's not strictly true. We did make some great leaps ahead with this disaster." Makoto said, raising her finger to underline that. "For instance the world is united as one, all species are considered equal, interspecies and homosexual love is accepted, the world is rid of nuclear weapons… except for those we have in the bunker here and capitalism is basically nonexistent." She smiled brightly. "The devil`s not as black as he´s painted, really."

"It all comes with a price." Seras said, before looking behind Makoto. "Your friend over there is really quiet… Is everything alright?"

Noel looked at her, still half hidden behind Makoto`s tail, pouting and hiding further behind her friend.

Seras blinked, glanced at Makoto, then back at Noel… or what was left of her, the furry tail covered more than half of the little girl.

"Oh, don´t mind her. She`ll open up eventually, but she`s always like that when someone has big boobs." Makoto said with a grin, shrugging her shoulders. "I keep telling her they aren`t as awesome as people make them out to be, but she won`t listen."

The vampire nodded in response. "Yeah… you get way too much unwanted attention with these. Not to mention they get in the way, and I can`t count the number of times the sling of my cannon got caught on one of them. Not very comfortable, no sir."

The beastkin blinked in surprise. "You have a cannon…?"

"I used to. It might still be in the ruins of the Hellsing mansion." Seras shrugged. "It's not like I'd want it back though. 120 pounds of steel makes for a great melee weapon, but yeah, it's far too cumbersome for any real use. Besides, I have a cannon, you have a squirrel tail."

Makoto grumbled a bit. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"Both are good in close combat."

The sound of the loudspeakers, hanging all over the hallways cut Makoto off from giving a response.

"Seras, report to me as soon as you can. I think I'll have to send you out there earlier than I hoped for…" Kokonoe sounded concerned, more than enough of a reason to be worried for the three women. "If you´re still with Makoto, I'm at Cyborg Lab number 12. And make it quick!"

Makoto`s only response to that was: "Wow. She`s really nice around you. You´re making me jealous, girlfriend." A grin followed, and she grabbed her by the wrist, speeding off. "Come on, I'll show ya!"

A short sprint later, they arrived at Cyborg Lab 12… another sterile lab that smelled of the distinct smell computers had when they were new. All the walls were plastered with servers and cables, save for one, which had a large machine with a human sized opening in it. It reminded Seras of old sci-fi movies, only that this was very, very real and had to have been made by someone with very, very bad taste. The red marks on Seras's wrist proved that it`s been a wild ride so far, but from here on out things were about to get even worse.

"There you are! God damn it, what took you so long?!" Kokonoe snarled at them as soon as they entered, while Tager just stood idle in the background.

"Sorry, Professor- Squirrel speed only has one gear!" Makoto said with another cheeky grin, letting go of Seras. "And she´s kinda heavy, so it`ll have to do."

"Whatever. We`ve been trying to reach Ragna for two hours now- he just responded. He aborted the search for Vermillion, but he`s now heading for the Lynchpin… rumor has it Terumi is there and he`s all but willing to engage." Kokonoe explained, at a loss for breath. She`d been excited, terrified and excited again by the events that were unfolding right now... It was starting to show. "Thing is, if he fights Terumi, he`ll use the Azure Grimiore. And the Azure Grimiore`s power is a potent fuel for the Lynchpin. Meaning, once he activates it, absolutely nothing will happen and he`ll get beaten to death. That I would like to avoid, if possible."

"But weren`t you trying to get rid of Ragna all this time..?" Makoto asked quietly, as if she was expecting the harsh answer that followed. Tager nodded to Kokonoe`s direction, also remembering that quite clearly.

"YES! I was! But I've been wrong, and damn it, he`s not a bad person. So, we´re going to get him to out of there, whatever he likes it or not. Neither of us is going to be able to hold back Terumi but me and Seras here, and I'll be busy holding back the Phantom… because I can already tell he`ll try to banish Seras as soon as she arrives." Kokonoe grinned a bit. It's been a while since she used her magic, and facing the Phantom was a challenge even to Rachel. It`d be so, so humiliating for that vampire bitch if she managed something Rachel failed at. "It`s a stretch, but I can tell he won´t be seeing this coming. So, Seras! Your mission is as follows- Get Ragna as far away from Terumi as possible. I´ll send you over with my experimental teleporter, but I won´t trust it with more than one use, so i´ll send a drone aircraft over as soon as you`re out of harm's way." Kokonoe looked at her new employee with a certain look that begged her to follow her order. "I know I haven`t done all this blood ritual stuff, but trust me, i´ll get to it as soon as you´re back. Good? Good. You`ve got weapons, right?"

Seras was confronted with a lot of information at once and blinked in surprise, but finally, she nodded, slightly. "I`ve still got my old service pistol, it can kill people. Doubtlessly way outdated and obsolete, laughably so, but, you know, it can kill."

"Not Terumi, I'm afraid. But it should be enough to annoy him… or at least distract him. I`ll transport you about 100 meters away from Ragna's position… Terumi´s weapon has a range of 50 meters, and it`ll take you two seconds to materialize- be careful. Just grab the guy and run, got it?"

Seras nodded once. "I understand."

The beastkin professor handed her a headset. "Here, we`ll keep in touch with this. I´ll give you advice, if you need any, and you´ll let me know when you´re ready for pickup. Alright?"

Another nod followed as a response.

"Good. Then get your ass in that teleporter and save this idiot, before he dooms us all!"

Without saying a word, Seras's arm turned into a mass of blood, with a silver pistol gushing out of the goo. It was a massive handgun, engraved with the words "Royal Guard 10mm Auto" on the slide and two massive bayonets permanently attached to the frame. Her right hand grabbed it and pulled it out, loading it with a loud clicking noise, then the arm returned to normal… With some hesitation, she approached the huge device in front of her. It seemed threatening, and downright stupid to use it without any instructions or testing. Whatever, she thought. The sun can´t kill me anymore, silver will be of little use, water has become harmless… might as well try this. If it kills me, so be it.

As soon as she stood in between the two contacts of the teleporter, a buzzing began and the world surrounding her started to come apart…

As her eyes regained sight of the world and her limbs could move again, things were different than what she was expecting.

She was in a giant room made of solid rock, with various glowing coffins piled around like trash. A huge stalactite was suspended in the air, hovering in place without any effort while it was loosely suspended by four chains, each one affixed to one corner of the ceiling.

The chains met in the middle, where they held the rock tightly in place, and a giant lock seemingly kept the chains where they were. Whatever that thing was, something deep inside her heart told Seras that she should not be here.

Instead of two men fighting at a distance, the dark cave was filled with a man and a woman… A large, wild looking man with a red, short coat made of leather, black trousers that resembled those worn by the old samurai and oddly enough, his hair was completely grey, even though he didn´t look much older than twenty. The woman too had silver grey hair, but she was dressed in what seemed to be a suit of armor, built out of various swords.

She hovered in the air, and on her back, eight swords flew without any attachment to the body in a wing-like formation… a beautiful, but quite frightening sight.

"Kokonoe, do you read me?" Seras said, tapping the button on her headset. "I`m at the scene, but-"

"I see it, Seras! The guy in the red coat is Ragna, but Terumi is nowhere to be seen… your mission objectives still stand, get him out of there!"

"Hey!" The man shouted towards the vampire. "Don`t you at least ask me before you pull me out of here?!"

Instead of letting Kokonoe talk, Seras answered him. "I have no idea whats going on, but even I can see that you`re better off anywhere but here. Come on, i`ll cover you!" With that, her pistol was aimed at Nu 13 in a millisecond, firing off a volley of three rounds in the next. Nu, reacting at a speed impossible for humans to comprehend, raised one of her flying swords to protect herself, which broke in the process.

"New target. Analyzing. Target unidentified." The girl spoke in a monotone voice, like a robot, but with deadly intent. "Target classified as threat. Threat Level C established. Resuming termination of first target."

Ragna growled, deflecting a swipe of seven swords with his own, monstrous, cleaver like blade. "I appreciate the help, but get out while you still can!" He looked around for a second, as if he was looking for someone. "Damn Terumi… he set me up and now he`s just gone."

"Negative. My mission is to escort you to safety, and that I'll do, right now." Her left hand grabbed his right, artificial hand and pulled him off his feet, dashing in the opposite direction as fast as she could. "Hold on!"

The speed blurred Ragna's sight, and in this moment he was happy for only one thing- his right arm couldn´t break.

A short sprint later, they were well over a kilometer away from the cave and Seras let go of him. He fell straight down to his knees, his sword still in his left hand, as he slowly caught his breath.

"What… the… fucking… hell… was… that...?!"

"Alright, Kokonoe, we`re ready for…. What the..?" She was about to call for the pickup drone, but in that moment, she noticed that the girl they had been fighting was arriving at the meadow they stood at, just seconds after they did. "Does she have jet engines built into her legs or something?! How the bloody hell did she get here so fast?!"

"How the hell did YOU get both of us here so fast, lady!? Look, I dunno who you are and I don`t care, but don`t get in my way!" Ragna growled at her, before he picked up his sword again and prepared for battle. "She only wants me, so back off!

"Are you always treating people who`re trying to save your life this way? Geez." Seras too prepared for a fierce fight, pistol raised to eye level.

"No, only the annoying ones." He grunted, stepping aside as quickly as he could as axes emerged from the ground, ripping open the soft soil of the meadow. "You aren´t going to hurt her too much with that tiny weapon, girl."

"We´ll see about that." Seras said, before unleashing two more three-round-bursts at Nu. However, Nu had adapted to this sort of attack and angled her flying swords in front of her, resulting in the shots getting deflected to the side. "Damn..!"

"See what I mean?!" Ragna yelled at her, before he leaped at Nu, ramming his own sword down at Nu´s flying blades to try and break her defense.

"You`re not fairing much better with that giant meat cleaver!" Seras responded, reloading her weapon quickly with a spare magazine from her waist. "What the hell is she, anyways?! A robot?"

Ragna landed on the ground behind Nu, then had to dodge two kicks of Nu`s sword-laced legs as well as a blade coming from seemingly nowhere. "Worse. A prime field unit wielding the Murakumo."

"A what wielding the what?" Seras fired at Nu`s back, then swiftly jumped to the side to avoid the slash of various blades heading her direction. "She`s not very accurate, is she."

"She`s just shrugging you off, you idiot!" Ragna said, but used the opening to bring Nu the full force of Hell`s Fang, which her genetically and mechanically enhanced body took with little to no damage. "Damn it… Look, I don´t have the time to tell you what she is, obviously!"

"I can see that. How can we kill her?" Seras asked, as the arm mounted blade of Nu crashed against the bayonets of her pistol. That girl had insane amounts of strength, but she couldn´t hope to arm wrestle with a vampire.

But then again… that Ragna… this giant sword he wielded seemed to weigh little more than a sheet of paper to him. He couldn`t be able to lift that thing this easily, no matter how strong he was… unless he was a vampire.

"I don`t think she`ll let us do that. Besides, her soul is stuck inside my Grimiore here and she´s screaming at me not to kill her body." His reply didn`t make things any easier. Seras was starting to get annoyed- this was just going to be a rescue operation. She didn´t have the weapons, equipment or even the ammo for a prolonged fight. "Well it doesn`t look like she`ll let us do that either! And how does a robot have a soul?!"

"She´s not a robot, damnit!"


	4. Black Hearts, Part 2

**_A/N:_**_ Hey, peeps, chapter 4 is here! And its the second part of the Murakumo arc. _

_Don`t really have to say much for this one, other than this is where the M-rating starts to show. The next chapter might be even more severe, but i wouldn´t bet on it. I can`t wait to see your comments for the twist in the end, though. XD  
_

_Now, lets begin the fourth installment of this madness!  
_

* * *

Seras Victoria had fought many different foes in her time.

Humans, werewolves, vampires, androids, regenerators.

But nothing, or next to nothing could be compared to such an insane fight.

Blades flew everywhere and with no visible pattern. This girl they were fighting was like a mobile weapon platform with the force of a whole platoon.

Her companion was no help either. Just like her, he could only deflect the hits and dished out nearly no damage at all.

"This is getting ridiculous. We need to stop her right now." Seras muttered, loud enough for Ragna to hear, before firing another burst. "There has to be a way."

"The only thing I could think of…" Ragna paused to strike at Nu`s legs, but she just rolled over and kept attacking; "would be to put her soul back into her body… I think I can do that, but i`d have to get pretty fucking close to her."

Seras shrugged off what her mind told her in this moment. "How close?

A line of spikes emerging from the ground forced her to retreat for a second, but then she countered with a punch to Nu`s visor. It recoiled the girl back, but she regained her balance in midair and Seras was treated with a slash of seven swords.

"WATCH OUT!" Ragna shouted at her and dashed towards them, but halfway there it already happened- Seras had attempted to dodge sideways when the swords ripped her right arm off.

Oddly enough, she didn`t even seem to recognize it at first, then when she looked at it the arm became a black goo which quickly returned back to her. A second later, the arm was reattached, even the pistol was still in her hand.

Nu cocked her head to the side, but the red dot on her visor focused her with murderous intent.

"Reanalyzing threat. Threat level is raised to S. Chance of victory for target is 25%." She spouted at a monotone voice, while Ragna gritted his teeth and tried his best to grab her.

Nu, however, reacted in time and slashed at his side, leaving some deep cuts before dashing backwards with a thrust from her engines.

"Don´t care about me, I can handle myself. How close do you have to be?!" Seras asked again, louder this time before running up to Nu for a kick to her side. She had to distract her from him as long as possible or she would cut him to pieces.

"Close enough to grab her head and hold her for a couple of seconds… that worked the last time." Ragna grunted, trying to ignore the pain that spread from his abdomen. It was a shallow wound, but the sweat mixing with the blood made it more painful than it actually was.

"I´ll see what I can do." Seras responded, before her left arm turned to a red and black mass, similar to the goo her arm turned into before. She rammed it into the ground, where the mass quickly crawled over to Nu, spikes of it emerging upwards and grabbing her forcefully.

"Does that work?!" In the next moment, Nu`s body became invisible and she reappeared at a different location. Seras`s eyes snapped open, then she groaned.

"You have to be kidding."

Seras slipped the last magazine into her pistol, reloading it with a click, before looking at Ragna.

"I`m going to try something. If it doesn´t work, try to do whatever you want to do anyways. I`ll be fine."

"What are you planning...?" Ragna simply asked, out of breath, but still with enough determination to bring this to a good ending. His body was battered, but not broken, and his spirit was firing up like a cannon, but something told him he would not like to hear what she would say.

"Trust me. I know what i`m doing." With that, Seras walked up to Nu, as if she wasn´t aware of her. Her pistol was lowered, then holstered as her leg partially turned to blood and engulfed the weapon before turning back.

"Target acquired." Nu responded, her blades pierceing and slicing at Seras, who flinched a bit, but took no notice of it. As she was in reach and Nu was about to burst backwards, she grabbed onto Nu`s arm at the speed of a bullet- as the engines tried to bring her backwards, they actually made her go in a circle and dislocated her shoulder. The machine didn´t stop, but Seras grabbed her other arm as well and straddled her legs with her own, the sharp metal digging into her flesh, but stopping there. Without force, the swords on her legs were unable to break her bones.

"Do it… do it now!" She commanded Ragna, who rushed forward, but stopped for a second as he saw that Seras´s teeth extended into fangs and pierced Nu`s neck.

Seras had no intention to making Nu a ghoul, if that was even possible, but she knew what it felt like to be bitten. Her fangs retracted quickly to leave as little of her venom in the Murakumo as possible, but she sucked on her neck, draining blood out of her wound.

Nu gasped, twitched, struggled… but her mouth was wide open and she was drooling as her flying swords fell to the ground, her mind unable to command them at the moment. Even without soul, Nu was partially human and sheer amount of pleasure and satisfaction rushed over her like a drug, bringing her body to a climax again and again.

Before she knew it, she mewled, moaned and squealed, her mind unable to form words, but begging Seras to drink more… she did.

After realizing what Seras had in mind, Ragna finally grabbed onto Nu`s head and gripped it tightly.

"Restriction 666 released… dimensional interference forcefield deployed… now engaging the Idea Engine…. Reverse current! Blazblue, activate!"

A dark energy spread from Ragna, but he forced it all into his left hand, which gripped the Murakumo´s forehead… everything that was stored inside the Idea Engine, Nu`s soul, memories and even her subroutines implanted by Kokonoe were transferred back into a host, but Ragna stopped the process just in time to keep the Idea Engine where it was. He would need it… and maybe Kokonoe could build another.

Nu sank into what seemed to be a coma, twitching and drooling as Seras let her go. She was drentched in sweat and her own juices, blood still dripping down her neck as the wound sealed up.

Ragna, on the other hand, sank to his knees, panting heavily and holding his left hand. A burning sensation, as if it was completely drained of blood, the irony was stunning. His knees were shaking and he could barely catch his breath. "Damn it… I really need to stop using this thing. At least its working again, it wouldn´t work when we were in that cave…"

Seras wiped her mouth and had to catch her breath too, it had been a while since she had a virgin inbetween her teeth. Aside from that, there was a strange, powerful taste to her blood that shouldn`t be there. Curious, but she was just glad it worked out the way it should`ve. "Is she going to be alright?"

Ragna nodded, mostly to himself. "It takes a lot more to kill her… and even if she`s dead, she returns somehow. Annoying as hell." Despite saying that, he took Nu into his arms, pressing her against his chest. He took a deep breath, enjoying the feeling- he was able to hold her this time… she didn`t perish in his arms. She was breathing… and when she would wake up, she would be herself, not a mindless killing machine. "Hey.." He looked up to Seras, still tired and beaten, but glad. "Thanks for the help. You`re a lot tougher than you look."

Despite what Nu did to her as she was trying to subdue her, Seras`s clothes were flawless and all wounds were regenerated, aided by the pure virgin blood she had devoured.

"Yeah, no problem." Seras responded, then pressed the button on her radio one more time. "We´re ready for pickup, Kokonoe. The situation is clear."

"Alright. Fixed your little Murakumo problem? Good. Then stay there, i´ll lock onto your coordinates."

"Got it. See you then." With that, Seras turned the radio off completely and turned to face Ragna, who was still holding Nu as if he feared someone might tear her from his arms. "Hey, Ragna. You could help me out with something in return…"

The swordsman looked up at her, still not friendly, but considerably more so than before. "What is it?"

"Kokonoe wants control over me. I don´t mind that so long as there`s someone out there to restrain me, but something tells me she`s not a good person either. You`ve probably known her longer than I do, so any information on her whereabouts would be a great help for me."

A grin followed, coming from the man dressed in red and black. "Okay."

Back at the Sector Seven Headquarters, Kokonoe nearly exploded with rage as soon as they arrived.

"What the hell is your problem, Ragna?! Terumi is not a priority target right now! He might have the lynchpin, but he hasn`t got the key, and he isn`t going to get it anytime soon. So keep your personal feelings of revenge for yourself until we´ve got the upper hand here!" Her eyes focused on the girl in his arms, which was still unconscious. "And why the hell did you take her along?"

"Nu has done nothing to deserve any of this, and its time to give her what she needs- someone to protect her from being abused again." Ragna growled, hugging Nu tightly. "And Terumi needs to die, the sooner, the better. You`re not giving me any orders, Kokonoe!"

The catgirl huffed and rolled her eyes. "Fine, keep your toy. I don´t need her. And, in case your ignorance made you forget about it – you could`ve died out there and would`ve accomplished nothing, if I wouldn`t have sent Seras over! So keep your trap shut, just this once!"

Seras observed this outburst of her would-be master without saying a word. What she heard from Ragna was enough for her… yet she didn´t want to decide before she knew the truth for herself.

"Alright, i´ll let it pass this once, since it gave me a pretty good sample of data. Quite a chunk actually." Kokonoe`s words caught Seras off guard. Data..? Was she analyzing her this whole time?

"But just to be sure, i´d say i`ll take a look at Nu to make sure her nuts and bolts sit in the right place."

A glare from Ragna was the answer to that. "No, I think you can stay out of this. The last time i`ve seen you with a Murakumo she wasn`t very happy about it."

"What the hell is a Murakumo anyway?! I`ve heard the term so many times now its making me go crazy one of these days." Seras intervened, mostly just to tear these two apart before they would lynch each other.

"Murakumo actually refers to the weapon they wield, the Lux Sanctus Murakumo. Its one of the ten Nox Nyctores type of weapons created at the later stages of the dark war." Kokonoe explained, adjusting her glasses with a hint of arrogance. "The persons that wield them are genetically alterated clones with cybernetic implants, the Prime Field Devices, which allow them to survive in the otherwise lethal environment of the Boundary. The Murakumo units saw some significant use in the Ikaruga civil war, where they`ve proven to be extremely lethal combatants, but they were actually created to harness the power of the Azure, an extremely powerful source of energy somewhere hidden in the boundary. Nu 13 here is the most advanced of these specimen, but instead her previous model, Mu12 gained access to the Azure`s power, after –someone- tried their hardest to kill her during the completion of her assembly."

Ragna gritted his teeth as she spoke about specimen, and Seras too didn`t like the way she was talking about living beings. They might be part machines, but as far as she`s heard and experienced, they were mostly human.

"That's a really harsh way of saying it, but yeah, true." Ragna agreed, clutching Nu. He could feel how she breathed against him, her heart was pounding, as if she was on the verge of waking up. "Hey, Kokonoe! I´m gonna retreat from the action for a bit, lock the door and such, just to make sure she won`t hurt anyone when she wakes up." With that, without even asking for permission, he took off, leaving Seras and Kokonoe on their own. The vampire stared at her coldly.

"Kokonoe, I have to say something as well. I won`t let you be my master. I have chosen someone else to be the one to restrain me, should the need arrive."

The catgirl was shocked, to say the least, and disappointed at the same time.

"What the hell?! I revived you, you ungrateful punk!" She was cut off by Seras adding the little bit that it took to let the barrel flow over.

"I have chosen Noel Vermillion, instead."

The scream of disbelief and confusion that followed this statement was heard in the entire laboratory.


	5. Black Hearts, Part 3

**_A/N: Merry Christmas! Have a chapter, will you. _**

_Also, question time! I`ve recieved some new questions in the comments, which i will now answer. You know the drill._

_"I wonder how Seras will react when she finds out that Ragna is a Dhampir(Half-Vampire) or Rachel Alucard is possibly a descendant of Alucard himself?"  
_

_She kind of noticed he was a vampire, but she´ll find out more later. As for Rachel- She´s not of Alucard`s bloodline, seeing how A: she had a father who`s thousands of years old and B: Rachel and Alucard are two completely different kinds of vampires. Rachel doesn´t seem to sleep in a coffin or need blood to survive, nor does she seem bothered by the sunlight. She does seem to be tired during the day and she does drink blood (Though she hates it, apperantly) but she would never go as far as consuming entire armies like Alucard used to. Therefore, in this fanfic, Seras and Alucard are referred to as Nosferatu-type vampires, while Rachel will be a different breed- haven`t decided yet, but Volturi, the less gay (Or significantly gay) vampires from Twilight, come to mind. *runs before he gets stabbed by fanboys* I JUST READ THE FIRST BOOK AND WATCHED TWO MOVIES! I DONT CLAIM TO LIKE THEM!  
_

_"it's whether he likes it or not_

not whatever"  


_English is not my first language, and i still have problems with some specific rules of the english grammar. Also, sometimes the way i formulate sentences can be very odd. Its probably not going to change anytime soon, so i apologize for that. You`ll be seeing more of these fuck-ups in the future.  
_

_"MFW Seras hasnt even compared how Ragna's Azure Activation sequence looks similar to Alucard's Restriction 0 release? Why you no flashbacks?"_

_Seras was sucking Nu`s blood at that moment and was high off her ass herself. She probably didn`t even notice that. I will, however, make her point that out the next time she`ll see the Azure activation sequence.  
_

_Thats all for today, keep the comments flowing and i´ll keep answering them! Without further delay, here`s chapter 5 of Blood of the Azure.  
_

* * *

When Nu woke up, the first thing she noticed was warmth. Incredible warmth, like she was pressed right against a radiator. Then she felt something shift, and she noticed that someone cuddled with her- something unthinkable to do with a Murakumo unit like her.

Yet, it kept her interested, and she regained more and more senses, becoming aware of her surroundings. Strong arms held her tight, but not too tightly. She could breathe with ease, and a faint smell of oil and computers told her she was in some sort of laboratory. There was another smell, but it took her a minute to find out what it was.

It was… Ragna.

Her eyes snapped open upon the realization of this, and she looked up at the gray haired swordsman holding her. His gaze was lost in thought, but when she stared up at him, unable to utter words, he lowered his head to face her.

"You´re awake… finally. Thought you would sleep until next week." He said, smirking. Nu didn't understand any of this. Why was she here? In what twisted reality would Ragna ever allow her to be this close to him?

"Ra…rag..Ragna…!" She finally brought his name up, her eyes watering. "Is this... is this really happening? Is Nu really this close to Ragna..?" The little Murakumo was far from believing it. The Ragna she knew took her for a killing machine, and an annoying one at that. And yet… it felt so warm. So good. She could feel his abs on her fingertips as she touched his chest. She could inhale his scent, which alone was like an aphrodisiac to her. Nu shivered, trying to resist the temptation.

"Yeah, it's real. Don´t be scared." He said, quietly, looking up from her gaze. "A lot of shit happened, to the both of us. You tried to kill me in the past, but you saved my life by giving your own. That means a hell of a lot to me, Nu." Ragna wasn´t the sentimental type, nor was he a man of big speeches. He tried to keep it simple, short and neutral, but he failed as soon as he started trying.

"But… Noel never tried to kill you, and she saved you too… yet only Nu gets this treatment..." Yeah, that was the sound of failure. She saw right through him.

"Noel saved me, and that's something I admire, yeah. But pulling me out of a cauldron and taking a bullet for me- that can´t be compared. Shit, I thought this whole time you were programmed to like me, to make becoming the black beast easier and all. Only when you were dead I realized you genuinely liked me." Ragna bit his lip, restraining himself the best he could. He didn´t want to be emotional. Crying solved nothing, and only caused more pain- to yourself and to those around you.

"Ragna… Nu likes you more than you think…" She replied, her voice trembling, as if she was at the verge of crying herself.

"Eh?" Oh no, he thought, don´t tell me. Does she actually…?"

"Nu loves Ragna."

Something inside his mind malfunctioned. A switch, corroded and nonfunctioning, suddenly turned on, giving juice to a whole array of different feelings. Surprise was the first, and the least intense one- somehow he was expecting this. But secondly, he was confused. How should he answer? Was there a need for an answer? What WAS his answer, anyhow? Then came realization- someone actually, genuinely loved him. His own family hated him, Rachel only tolerated him and Jubei`s affection was more friendship than anything else- he had his own kids to worry about.

This girl, whom he had tried to destroy countless of times, loved him. She cared for him, so much so that she would throw her life away to save his. That realization made his brain go numb for a couple of seconds.

Then the confusion came back. How was he supposed to answer this? Ragna thought for seconds that seemed like hours to someone that tried his hardest to come up with a solution to an urgent problem.

His realization kicked back in, and he noticed how warm and comfortable Nu was, despite the fact that she had been resting on his lap for half an eternity. How good it felt to be loved by her, and finally, her face.

That face that he had tried to find for years. The face he had tried to see, smiling brightly, for nearly a decade… the face he deemed lost when he finally saw it again, twisted with hate and smiling without any compassion.

His gloved hand reached out for her, then touched her cheek, stroking it lightly before combing through her hair.

Then, something left his mouth that he'd wanted to stay in.

"You`re going to regret that, Nu. I won`t survive my rebellion for much longer. I might even die the next day, for what I know."

The Murakumo smiled back at him. "Ragna won`t die. Not if Nu can help it. Nu will do her best –and more- to keep Ragna safe."

He bit his lip, hard, gripping her back tightly… but it didn´t help much. He could feel his eyes tearing up… he was about to cry like a baby in front of her.

"Stupid… I`m not worth dying for, Nu! You could do so much else with your lifetime, i-"

"So could you, Ragna. I`m half machine, produced to kill as much as possible."

"And i`m already dead, i`m just driven forward by my hate and my feeling of revenge."

She smiled, a bit bitterly." Then Nu doesn`t see why we won`t fit together."

That was enough. Ragna could feel his tears running down his cheeks, and in a feeble attempt to hide it, he closed his eyes as quickly as he could and kissed her, right on her lips, pressing the Murakumo tighter against his body. He didn`t even feel the kiss, the feelings that were overflowing at the moment took over and rejected any other feeling he might have. He just wanted her to feel it- and tell her what he couldn`t say, what he couldn`t believe for himself.

He did love her, if he didn`t already, he loved her more than ever now.

* * *

After fleeing from an outrage of epic proportions, Seras was strolling through the hallways of the laboratory complex, searching for what would be her new master. Her first guess, that she would be with Makoto, turned out to be incorrect, as the beastkin was alone in the cafeteria, drinking what seemed to be half energy drink, half lemonade and even part alcoholic. The only thing she knew for sure was the name of it, though- "Beast- for heroes only-", an obvious reference to that Black Beast she heard so much about.

"I didn´t know you fought in that war, too." She said, approaching the squirrel girl while pointing at the can of her beverage "You gotta tell me some stories if that's true."

Of course, she was only being sarcastic, which Makoto responded to with a smirk. "Man, I ended that war myself, long before Hakumen and all those posers were even born. What do you need?"

"I need a map of this place, for starters. Its as confusing as humanly possible. But before that- have you seen Noel somewhere?"

Makoto shrugged. "I dunno. I know it looks like she would even go to bed with me if i`d let her, but she`s just that shy around people that i`m one of the few friends she has. I haven't seen her around for quite some time though." She took a sip of her drink, now interested in the details. "Why? Do you want something from her?"

"Yes, that's why i´m asking." Seras said, sighing. "As a vampire, its too dangerous to let me run around freely- I might just go crazy and kill someone at some point- so I need someone to stop me. To be responsible, and to decide whatever my fate should be. Maybe Noel could be that special person for me.. she seems a much better choice now than Kokonoe would`ve been."

Makoto stared at her, then shrugged. "Yeah, maybe, but Noel can`t even take care of herself. And that's a stupid rule."

"It sounds stupid to those who haven´t experienced what happens with vampires that aren`t guided by a human." She sighed again. "Trust me, its not pretty to see something that looks human act like a wild animal. I don´t know why, it just seems to be in our psyche to be devoted towards humans… not all vampires feel like that, of course, but my master, the one who bit me originally, he was really into that." Seras shuddered a bit. "I think he enjoyed it way too much to be... devoted, if you can call it that."

"Sounds like you´ve had quite a life since you've been dead." Makoto said with a grin. "Quite a lot of boyfriends you´ve been devoted to?"

Seras gave her a stare that told her this was a touchy subject. "Not a single one. Well, one, but he died before we got to second base."

The beastkin widened her eyes and didn´t manage to close them again. "You`re a virgin..? After, what, a hundred years?!"

The vampire cleared her throat and looked away from her, shyly. "Uhm, two hundred and twenty-five, if you count the years i´ve been, well, dead."

Now Makoto`s mouth hung open too, frozen like an icicle in the deepest winter. "Jesus Christ woman! You need to get laid!"

"I- I don't know, I've just… never felt the need that I would need to… uh, you know, I just felt like I could rather handle things alone, keep it at a friendly basis and all that..." Seras`s cheeks turned into a shade of pink while she found the wall much more interesting than Makoto´s face. "I mean- I can`t even bear children anymore, whats the point?"

Makoto looked at her like an alien. "Dude! It's the best thing since Television!"

"I-I think TV came later-"

"Doesn´t even matter!" Makoto exclaimed, still staring at her. "I'll help you get a boyfriend, if you like. Trust me, its not that hard!"

„Th-thanks, but let me think about it first, okay..?" To her aid, a voice called out to them from the doorframe.

„Makoto? Seras..? What are you doing here?" Noel vermillion looked at the two with a confused and slightly scared expression.

„I was drinking. She was talking." Makoto answered bluntly. „Now why are you so put off about that?"

Noel blinked, lowering her head even further. „I.. i just heard how Professor Kokonoe seemed to.. explode in a fit of rage, so i was hiding in my room until now..."

The squirrel sighed deeply. „Noel, she always does that when things don't go her way. I thought you´d know this by now."

„I... i do! But.." Before Noel could apologize for anything, Makoto cut her off. „Anyway, our new arrival wants a word with you. Make some friends, will ya?" With a grin, she took off at a speed one would not expect in this situation- she ran off without even finishing her drink.

Seras and Noel stared after her, both blinking in suprise, but after a few seconds of being stunned in surprise, Seras shrugged her shoulders and turned to the smaller girl. „Hey... I have a favor to ask... its more of a proposal really, and it might be a bit early to ask things like this, but i don't really have a choice right now."

Noel was still suspicious of the woman who had bigger breasts than her... and she was generally shy around strangers. This time, however, she was actually scared she might be eaten if she wasn´t careful. „Y..yes? What is it?"

„You see... we Nosferatu are creatures of unimaginable power. Some of us are so powerful that we`re no longer permitted to roam free- for our own good. In that case we`re either enslaved by a human, or we select someone ourselves that should be our 'master'. This master controls us in a matter of speaking- He punishes us for bad behavior to bring us back to our senses and tell us its wrong, but he can also give us orders, which we have to follow. Normally he`d have to feed us too, but since Sector Seven has near infinite supply of blood reserves, i don´t think that's necessary."

Noel listened closely, but she didn`t like things started to turn out. „Are.. are you asking me to.. master you?! I.. i could never command someone around! I can´t even confront strangers when they´re pushing me around! I used to buy things online only because i was scared to go shopping!"

The vampiress sighed. She was scared to go shopping? This might turn out to be interesting... and not in a good way. „Look, its only an offer.. or more a request, since Kokonoe originally wanted control over me. But... with what i´ve heard so far, its a really bad idea to give this woman yet another weapon at her disposal. Plus, its always better to have a human controlling a monster... a rational, mortal human with a sense of right from wrong." She approached Noel, and with some hesitation from Noel´s side, placed her hands on the shoulders of the girl. She could feel how she shivered, and not from her body temperature, which had adapted to the temperature of the room, but from the burden she wanted to put on those very shoulders she was touching. Her blood red eyes looked into the comforting green of hers, and Seras was almost pleading her to accept. With the way things were, she didn`t have much other options but to be on her own... with predictable results. Feeding on her own, killing on her own and following her own motives in a world she had yet to fully understand was bound to make her the monster she never wanted to become.

Noel started to consider it. It was near impossible for her to see herself becoming a dominatrix- and that's what it sounded like to be this girls master- but she could tell that she needed her help. Noel wanted to help... she sure seemed like a good person in the deep corners of her heart, even if it didn´t beat anymore. But could she really be a good master for her? Maybe she could give control to someone else once they found someone suitable...

„I... i.. I'll do it, then... but don´t expect any wonders from me." Her voice was quiet and insecure, but became tougher and determined as the sentence went on. „What do i have to do?"

Seras smiled, letting go of her shoulders to pat her on the head. „That depends how much control you want... if you want to restrain me completely like my master used to be, that requires days of rituals and bonding and all that... if its just the simple mastery, its basically just a blood offering and a binding oath, that's it. Its all in the book that Kokonoe has."

The girl in front of her hung her head and sighed deeply, seeing a certain problem becoming more and more severe. Kokonoe wanted Seras, Seras wanted Noel. That was going to be really troublesome, for sure.

„But... uhm.. couldn´t you tell me what to do for the simple mastery without the book? Kokonoe isn´t going to give it to me just like that..."

Seras smirked, kneeling down before her. „I´ll tell you then. Repeat this- 'Spawn of Lilith, crafted of blood and dirt, surrender your soul to me and my bloodline. Ravish my foes and keep my kin safe, remain my loyal servant, till my death shall set you free, then my blood shall be yours.' and then cut yourself, in the hand, the finger, whatever. I´ll drink some of your blood and its done." With this, she drew a small trench knife from her boot, handing it to Noel, who took it with shivering fingers. Seras looked up to her. „Are you scared?"

She nodded in response.

„So am i. I´ve never done this before... but i´ve heard it hurts a lot. Do it when you´re ready... when you´re really ready."

Noel closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Would she be alright? Was this the right thing to do? She barely knew her! She just met her this morning! But her voice was so comforting... like she knew what she had been through. It was so seductive... Noel couldn´t resist. Was this the influence of a vampire, or just Noel herself, desiring someone that understands her?

She didn´t know. And she started to lose the care for it, too.

„Spawn of Lilith, crafted of blood and dirt, surrender your soul to me and my bloodline. Ravish my foes and keep my kin safe, remain my loyal servant, till my death shall set you free, then my blood shall be yours!" As Noel cut her finger with a grimace, Seras cried out, a dark red aura emitting from the ground consuming her.. her fingers gripped the floor, cracking one of the tiles it consisted of, while her fangs extended, her eyes glowing bright red. All over her body, little wounds opened, blood dripping to the floor... it started to move on its own, forming the crest Noel had seen whenever she used Bolverk in the past...

After a few seconds, Seras panted deeply and got back up from the ground, gripping Noel´s hand, which had become drenched in blood as Noel's high pulse had caused the wound to bleed much more than it should´ve.

„Let me clean that off for you... master.." Seras whispered, barely able to speak due to the numerous wounds on her body. Her grip was gentle, but solid, as a long tongue came from her mouth, licking Noel´s hand off with care.

Noel herself could only stare, unable to say anything after the scene she just witnessed. She heard of some bizarre magic before, but never did she think it would be this... dark. She felt like she just summoned a demon, a succubus, from hell itself.

As Seras kissed and nibbled the wound on her finger, she realized she wasn´t far off.

„S...seras! You.. you can stop now!" Noel said, raising her voice just a bit, enough to make Seras react and snap out of her blood rage."Yes.. yes, of course."

She let go of her hand, and to Noel's suprise, her wounds were gone already. Only a few traces of blood on her clothes indicated they were real in the first place.

„Are... are you okay?" Noel asked her, looking worried, but Seras smiled a bit and shook her head. „It didn´t hurt as much as i thought. Trust me- losing an arm, your eyes and half of your spine is more painful than that." As she expected, Noel widened her eyes and shuddered, while she just smirked. She might be fun to be with after all.

* * *

Unknown to Noel, a figure had watched them from the shadows. Unable to appear in the Sector Seven base while Kokonoe was awake, Rachel Alucard had watched the arcane scene with worry, but great interest. Ever since she came to knowledge that a Nosferatu had aided Ragna in the battle against Nu-13, she had been curious about that vampire's capabilities.

As soon as Jubei´s daughter would go to sleep, she would risk a visit, even if it would ruin her tight schedule.

„Hmmm... its been a while since i saw someone of my species. I hope you won´t disappoint me, Seras Victoria."

With her ancient bloodlust finally reawakened, Rachel Alucard smiled darkly in anticipation.


	6. Clash of the Predators

_**A/N: Happy new year, everybody!**_

_I really had some problems completeing this chapter. It was lacking some filler content, because the next day will be a lot of exposition, training, selecting weapons et cetera. Also need a way to get Taokaka into the story.  
_

_In advance, i want to apologize if Rachel is a bit OOC in this chapter. I`ve rarely played her in any RPGs and to be honest, i really don´t like her all that much, as you can probably tell by the way she`s an antihero here.  
_

_Instead of answering questions, this time i´d like to ask you, the reader, some questions.  
_

_One- should OCs appear in this story? It seems kind of a cop-out to me, because Blazblue has a ton of characters already, i could just use them to my hearts content. But on the other hand, its an alternate storyline, so things go differently. And its a wide world out there with lots and lots of various people, so naturally there`s a lot of individuals that we haven´t heard of so far. I`ve got some OCs that would fit here, but i could also see myself inserting a fan´s OC if they fit.  
_

_and the other question i have is: Seras and Noel have gotten pretty close in the last chapter, and it continues here. They both have lesiban tendencies in their respective stories (Mostly due to fanservice) and i could see the two becoming a couple at some point or another. Would you think its a good idea to bring the two together, or should Seras have a male partner later? Or should she stay a loner? I honestly don´t know at this point.  
_

_If you´ve got an answer, you could send me a PM or write a comment, as ususal.  
_

_But enough talk! Have at you! *points at the chapter accursedly" (And that was the obligatory Castlevania reference in a story about vampires.)  
_

* * *

Night was falling upon the laboratory, and the first day in Seras's new life was nearing its end.

She`d been sleeping during the night for a while before her death, going against her natural rythm of being awake at night. It was very uncomfortable at first, but by now, Seras had accustomed to it quite nicely. Or anything among the lines of "nice", because it was still unnatural, and she could feel it everytime she awoke from her slumber.

The coffin she had been using for nearly a century was unscaved, despite being lost for decades and being transported by a giant cyborg demon... and it was still as small and claustrophobia-inducing as she remembered it to be.

Sighing deeply, she shrugged on her nightgown and went to "bed", seeing how there was little point to staying awake, even if her body wanted to.

Her rest was a whole ten minutes long, before a gust of air passed by and two red eyes stared at her from across the room.

The chill running down Seras`s spine told her it was a vampire, and not a minor one at that.

Within a second, she was up and had her weapon drawn, aimed at the small girl standing in her room, surrounded by a fat little bat creature and what seemed to be a cat, but just as disformed as the bat was.

"I am impressed, Seras Victoria. Your reflexes and instincts are still strong, it seems." Her cold, uncaring voice was nearly threatening this time, as she was repressing hate for the woman who didn`t even know what she was doing. "But your mind is bleak. Did you even consider asking Kokonoe before restoring Nu-13s soul to her body, or even saving her body at all? Can you even fantom what risks lie letting both Ragna and Nu stay alive at the same time? She may be sane at this point, but should Terumi, or even worse, Relius Clover possess her again, i fear we may not survive to tell the tale."

"First, who are you, and what are you doing in my room? Second, what on earth are you talking about?" Seras was getting impatient, and despite the lack of hostility from the vampire girl, she was getting an itchy trigger finger. Seras lost her sense to spare kids a long while ago, because even at a young age, vampires could be, and almost always were, monsters.

"My name is Rachel Alucard. I had to wait until Kokonoe went to sleep and lowered her magic defenses before i could intrude her personal space, which is why we must meet at this late hour. I`ve come to warn you, because you´ve interfered into a battle which is not your own, and we may all pay the consequences. To put it simply- Ragna is the Black Beast, though restrained and unawakened, while Nu is the Black Beast`s heart, a key to its power, so to speak. A cauldron is needed for their union, but should they unite as one, the Black Beast will be reawakened with unimagineable destruction pouring down its wake."

"Okay, alright, i get it. Now, can i go back to sleep? Something tells me there`s a lot to do tomorrow." Seras groaned, her hand getting tired of holding her pistol, but she won´t let go either.

"Do not be so arrogant as to believe you`d understand everything in just one sentence!" Rachel hissed, her patience running low. "You should redeem your actions as soon as possible. Terminate the Murakumo unit- it was never meant to live in the first place."

Seras was losing the tranquilizing effects of sleep and became ever more focused, the piercing words of the vampire brought her to senses. "No. And you should think about your tone, Miss Alucard. I know Tremere-Vampires ususally dominate others, but i only have one master, and one only." Her eyes narrowed as she stared down her gunsights. "Lets discuss this in a different tone, okay?"

"How dare you speak to the princess like that!" Gii squeaked, flying over to her on his own. "You should ask for f-gaahk!"

A burst of three blessed silver hollowpoints literally turned him inside out, a weapon made to kill vampires prooved to be much more effective on the familliar than the ususal abuse he was getting,. The fat little bat simply exploded in a cloud of blood, much to the shock of Nago and, to some extent, Rachel, who was at a loss for words. Ragna was an annoyance and even he went too far sometimes, but this was beyond the line.

"You should train your pets, as well." Seras added,

"How... how dare you... explode him like that!" Nago squeaked, unlatching from Rachel`s hip and pouncing Seras without awaiting his master`s command. He too was greeted with a burst of bullets, but she also had to result to a powerful strike of the bayonets attached to the pistol to make him succub, and dissolve into a mass of blood.

"You imbercile..! Do you attack anyone you meet in this manner?!" Rachel growled at her, not yet realizing what her opponent had done.

"No. Only those who interrupt my sleep and tell me to kill a girl who doesn´t deserve it." The gun was now trained on Rachel`s forehead, who then started to become aware of the changes in power.

Without her familiars, Rachel was reduced to her magic- lightning and wind powers- which both didn´t work half a kilometer away from any clouds or even natural air.

Seconds went by, and Seras stared at her both with hateful intent, but also with expectations. For some reason Rachel still didn´t attack her yet, and she was keen to find out why.

"Whats the matter? Even without your pets, you´re still a vampire. You`re still a predator, able to bend steel with your fingertips! Whats wrong?!"

The older, smaller girl huffed and balled her fists. "You... I will not step down to the level of a nosferatu! I will not give in to the bloodlust..!"

Seras`s glare didn`t go away. "Oh yes you will. You can fight it, you can try to control it, but it resides in all of us. One day, if not now, you`ll loose your control... and thats why i destroyed the likes of you in my lifetime."

This time, Rachel actually reached out for a punch in her face, but Seras dodged with ease, clipping the older one`s face with the bayonets, which led to two small red stripes across her cheeks.

Realizing that her perfect skin had been damaged, Rachel`s eyes widened before her anger finally got the better of herself.. and she rushed at the younger vampire with just her fingernails, trying to claw her eyes out... not a match for the vampire hunter with a century worth of combat experience.

"Seras! Stop!" Finally, the door had swung open and Noel screamed at her servant, both in suprise and horror. Seras, who had aimed at Rachel´s forehead, now lowered the gun and looked over to Noel.

Along with her, Kokonoe entered the room and immidiently forgave Seras for interrupting her sleep. Instead, her hand grabbed Rachel and pulled her up to eye level.

"You! Who the hell gave you permission to enter, huh? I thought i made myself clear when we last met, bitch!" Kokonoe`s language was a vent for her anger. "Stop snooping around in things you don´t belong in!"

Rachel slowly calmed down, forcing herself to regain control ofer herself. "I was merely telling this confused child to redeem herself for the error she had done."

"She told me to kill Nu, because she doesn`t deserve to live.. in her opinion." Seras said whilest bringing her gun back into the mass of blood that her body consisted of- in other words, it was absorbed by her right leg.

"Did she? That makes a whole lot of fucking sense." Kokonoe snarled, letting go of Rachel to let her fall to the ground. "Its called jealousy."

"So you would go as far as to assume i would kill her, simply because she is a competiton for me?" The old vampire huffed, coming a hand through her hair. "Ridiculous. Ragna is but a servant of mine, and i will likely dispose of him when his mission is over. I`ve gotten tired of this nonsense, Kokonoe. Call your puppets to escort me out."

"Hell, i was just about to. You`re not just a thorn in my side, more like a chainsaw in my hip." Growling, Kokonoe called Tager over to bring Rachel out of the complex, before she turned back to Seras.

"Good job, blondie. Don´t get me wrong, i`m still fucking pissed that you double crossed me, but right now i´m pretty okay with how things turned out. I`m gonna need you to come over to the lab tomorrow- just to get you outfitted and all that." Without waiting for an answer, Kokonoe left, shoving Rachel out with a grin on her face... Noel stayed behind, staring at her friend without a word.

"...everything okay, Noel?" Seras`s voice was calm and soft again, her blood was no longer boiling.

"N-no, i´m.. not used to waking up in the middle of the night due to gunfire." The smaller girl was shivering, mostly because she was feeling cold, but a bit of fright was included in the mix. She had just gotten the first taste of what a vampire was like, and frankly, it was scary.

"Yeah.. i was hoping it would get someone´s attention if would use my weapon instead of my abilities." With a little sigh, she approached Noel, slowly caressing her head and stroking her hair. "You´re scared of me, aren`t you."

"A... alittle." Noel nodded just the slightest bit, twitching when Seras touched her.

"You don`t need to be scared. I will never hurt you, i promise you that." Her crimson eyes were glowing a bit in the dim lighting of the room, while Noel`s green tinted ones were almost invisible in contrast. Seras could see in the dark, however, so she could still look her in the eyes.

"I.. i... okay." Noel´s breath became erratic, something about this situation felt strange, but comforting. It reminded her of how Makoto would always help her calm down, back in the days of the acadeamy... she needed to get off that. Trying to change the subject, she looked over to the coffin that was now open.

"Is.. is that your.. bed?" She asked, actually curious. How could anyone sleep in a box like that?

Turning around, the vampire sighed a bit with a nod. "More or less. I can sleep in a bed okay, but its like sleeping without actually finding rest. On the other hand, as soon as i try to sleep in this and get over how i feel like i`m never going to get out of it again, i fall asleep in seconds like i´m being comatosed. Its like you`re literally dropping dead as soon as you close your eyes."

"Tha.. that sounds creepy..." Noel shivered again. "But.. you do have a bed too?" She peered over to the side, where one of the beds stood that could be found in any employee room.

"Yup. Sometimes you just want to be comfortable, and i have to say, in all the years i´ve been dead so far i´ve never found a coffint hats actually comfortable." Seras grumbled, then started to grin a bit. "Plus, its great for watching televison and such."

"I see. That makes sense." Noel smiled a bit, slowly getting over her traumatizing experience. "Well, i guess you need your sleep, right..?"

Seras smiled weakly, nodding a bit. "Yeah, its.. been a stressful day. Two fights within a few hours... i`m not used to that anymore."

"Alright then... i`ll see you in the morning." Noel left her alone, but not before giving her another smile and a wave.

As the morning dawned, Ragna felt like a giant load had been taken off his chest. Nu was safe and finally free, one step closer to his ultimate goal... because Terumi would have one hell of a hard time beating the two of them.

On the other hand, there seemed to be a new, heavy load on it... he had to keep her safe, had to protect her no matter what.

And another load that felt like a sack of rocks was lieing on him... a warm, comfortable one... that was crushing him slowly, but steadily.

"Gah! Nu, what the hell?!" He snapped his eyes open upon realizing it, staring into one crimson eye and a perky smile.

"Good morning, Ragna! Nu made breakfast for her and Ragna!" She pointed over to a small table in the guest room they spent the night in, but due to Nu obscuring the view with her body (That was covered with her bodysuit, thank heavens for that) he couldn´t actually see what she made.

And frankly, he was a bit terrified.

"Huh? Oh, you did? Well, thanks... now, if you´d get the fuck off of me, i could eat it together with you." A smirk crossed his face, a devious one, before he raised his hands and pulled on both of her cheeks, making her grimace. "Got it?"

"Ghot icht Rhagnha!" Despite all that, she still managed to smile and talk, which he found somewhat amazing. Nu leaped off of him a second later, landing next to the bed and allowing him to get up at last.

Aside from the freshly made apple juice, which turned out to be no problem due to her sword techniques, he was suprised to find a selection of sandwhiches... and very, very odd ones at that. After just a short overview, he decided that he would not try the ones that she decorated with onion rings... he loved her, but he also wanted to stay alive.

"Oh man. Did you make all of that yourself?" He was honestly amazed by the amounts of effort Nu put into it, even though he doubted most of the stuff was edible. His inner thoughts warned him that it might be even worse than Noel, since Noel actually had a normal education while Nu spent her lifetime in a Cauldron, but logic told him it couldn`t be. Noel`s cooking didn´t even resemble food, and this was definitely food.

"Yuppers! Nu did it allll by herself while Ragna was sleeping. You slept a lot, you know." She pointed over to a digital clock over the doorframe, which depicted 10:45 AM. "You should try the apple marmalade. Nu doesn`t know how to make marmalade, but it sure tastes good."

"I`ll make sure to try it, Nu. Thanks." With a bit of a grin, he took her by the shoulder and caught her lips for a kiss. He`ll need to get used to her, that was for sure, but something told him it wouldn´t be too unpleasent. "Well then, on with the food poisoning."


	7. Dangerous Past, Part 1

**_A/N:_**_ Sorry, a bit late with this chapter, i literally started writing saturday because i wanted to wait for peoples opinions- then i just couldn´t get myself to write until monday._

_As a little reward for that, its nearly 500 words longer than my ususal ones.  
_

_So, the people have spoken, there will be no OCs appearing in this story. As for Seras and Noel or Seras and anyone else, well it stands one negative vote against one positive one... guess we`ll have to wait and see. You can still post your opinions as a review or PM them to me.  
_

_This chapter is officially declared the worst by me, but judge for yourself. I promise to make the next one worth the wait, though.  
_

* * *

The next day Seras barely even got to take a shower before Kokonoe knocked on the door, opening it a second later.

"Morning. You ready for an examination? I hope so, cuz that`s whats on the menu today." The catgirl professor spoke to her with a full mouth, a huge, rainbow colored sucker was stuck in it... Seras could only stare for a moment until Kokonoe took it out again to lick over its broad side. Good, it wasn`t jammed in there... she was afraid her lust for sweets would`ve done something horrible.

"Whats the matter?! Lets get going already!" Her superior snarled, looking angry to her direction, while Seras was still putting on her socks, blinking at the verbal abuse she was getting.

"I`m trying to get dressed, geez! Give me a moment, i`ll be there in a second!" A sigh escaped the vampire`s lips. It felt just like home, getting abuse from Integra Hellsing 24/7.. Somehow, that didn`t feel bad at all.

"Tss, whatever. Fine, i`ll wait." Kokonoe huffed and crossed her arms, staring at the wall beside her to emphasize that she was ignoring Seras... who just smirked and finished putting on some fresh clothes before tapping her on the shoulder.

"You can stop pretending to ignore me now." She whispered with a grin, which made the scientist twitch and turn around at near lightspeed, stomping out.

"I wasn`t pretending, okay?! Now get moving, i don`t have all day!"

Kokonoe lead her into a small test chamber, with various sensory equipment plastered over the walls. It made Seras feel a bit claustrophobic, standing in an empty, steel chamber with only two doors- the front and the back, entry and exit presumeably- and she was about to be left alone.

"I`m gonna need you to strip down, Seras." Kokonoe said blatantly. "Jewelry or piercings can stay, though."

"Wh...what?!" Seras widened her eyes and stared at the catgirl. "Why the hell do you need me to strip in an empty room?"

"Every article of clothing you wear is like a filtering mesh for the scan, and we need reliable, hard data on your Ars Magus Applitude, otherwise we might run into trouble getting you used to one. So you need to be naked for the test." Kokonoe sighed. "Look, are you gonna do this or what? I`ll leave you alone, and there aren`t any cameras aside from the body scanner."

The vampire sighed deeply, then groaned, starting to take off the clothes she had just put on five minutes earlier. A triumphant smirk came from Kokonoe, who then left the room, locking the doors behind her. "I`ll unlock the doors when its done, but there`s gotta be a sterile enviroment, so i can`t stay inside." The voice now came from a loudspeaker installed somewhere in the room, and with every piece of clothing taken off, Seras became more and more uncomfortable. Sterile enviroment? Great, that didn`t sound good.

And just as she was stripped bare, save for her ancient pair of Dogtags, a hissing sound came from the cieling, making her twitch.

"Relax. Thats the decontamination sequence. It`ll suck the air out on one end and replace it with fresh air on the other... it`ll take a minute, so stay calm."

Sixty seconds passed, and Seras felt like this was the beginning to a horror movie. Any minute now the door would open and horribly disfigured mutants would jump at her, dogs that could split in half and devour a man in one bite... but she was never unarmed, her pistol was stored inside her body and her left arm was a lethal weapon in its own right.

"Okay, we`re green. Starting the applitude test."

A buzzing sound came, and a warm, tingling feeling rushed over Seras`s body. It felt like she was exposed to a high dose of radiation, she was just waiting for the painful bit to start... but instead, it just kept going, the scanners turning left and right, around and around, up and down, circling every inch of her and firing this wierd heat at her... two minutes passed this time, until the sequence was completed.

"Okay, thats it, the test results are being calculated... the doors unlock in ten seconds, so you can start dressing yourself again."

A groan escaped Seras as she realized she had to do the same thing for the second time, but she was glad she could finally leave this damned test chamber. Hopefully it was worth it, because she won`t do it again, that was for sure.

As she approached Kokonoe again, though, she didn`t even get to say anything. The surpised, shocked look on the scientists face told several stories at once, though none of them were clearly written.

"Seras, i`ve conducted over two hundred such tests since that machine has been built, but i`ve never seen a result like yours. According to this, your Ars Magus Applitude is exactly 0,0 precent, meaning you`re incapable of even the simplest Ars in existance."

Seras was stunned as well. "So what you`re saying is, this entire thing was pointless?!"

A shaking head was the answer. "Nope. We got some good data, and any data is good. Sector Seven is against using Ars Magus anyway, so it just makes you more attractive for us..." She twitched and turned away from her. "Even though you`re.. technically not working with us. Ahem."

Going towards another hallway leading to another chamber, Seras decided to follow her... the only logical course of action in this moment.

"I`ve prepared for hopeless cases, Seras, don´t worry. Sector Seven`s fighting force that consists of living beings is a very small portion of our army, so we ususally custom make them weapons and equipment.. such as Tager`s magnetic fists, Makoto`s tonfas and Noel`s mass drivers. The later weren`t entirely custom made, by the way, i just used a pre-dark war design for a mass driver that creates its own ammunition and built it into a shell that looks like Noel`s old pistols." Realizing none of this interested Seras in any way, she got to the part where it became interesting... unlocking the door to the armory with a retina scan, she let Seras inside before stepping in herself, locking the door behind them.

A vast warehouse the size of a military prooving ground greeted them, dozens of shipping containers full of ammunition and spare parts, millions of weapons from any era in modern history were arranged into vampire could say nothing to all of this, her mouth hung open. They didn´t have the manpower, but they sure had the arsenal to start more than one world war on their own.

"As you can see, we`ve retrieved almost every weapon the world left behind after the Black Beast struck, as well as every single bullet ever made... those are just the leftovers, though. I`ll have to make a weapon for you too, but for starters, there`s something in the corner over there."

Pointing over to a workplace near one of the corners of the warehouse, she lead her through the maze of storage containers to a mass of rifles, all more or less identical, and all seemed familiar to Seras- massively deformed/customized, but it was unforgetable- The Avtomat Kalashnikova Model 1947, which had undergone endless changes in itself through the decades.

"We`ve taken some of the old AK 47s, stripped them down and renewed them, then made them better- these babies still fire the same bullets, which we have billions of left in storage, but the barrel speeds up the bullet as its fired through magnetic acclerators. A burst of plasma saves the bullet from being crushed by the air pressure, and a magnetic actuator is used instead of a return spring to save the shooter from being burned by plasma." Kokonoe gave her one of the guns to hold as she proceeded to go through a box of spare parts to look for a plasma cartridge.

Seras looked over the weapon- the parts that were left untouched had been returned to a state where they looked new, so it looked like a completely new gun in itself. The entire furniture of the gun, stock, pistol grip and foregrip had been changed for polyfibre parts from various other guns, which had much better ergonomics, she had to admit. The ease of use was left untouched, though. Fire selector and bolt were the same, the sight was the same and judging by the magwell, the magazine was the same too.

"Ahh, there we go!" Holding up a green tube that resembled a small flashlight, Kokonoe opened the stock of the gun to click it into place. As soon as she did this, the tube began to glow, and a slight buzzing noise confirmed it was loaded. "Its powered by a nuclear fission battery, so you don´t need to worry about replacing it. The plasma lasts for about a thousand rounds too, so replacing it once per mission should be enough... You wanna try it out?" One look was enough, Seras was eager to find out what she had been missing in the last few years.

* * *

Noel wandered through the empty halls of the laboratory bunker after finding little rest that last night. She really didn´t like being woken up by gunfire, and this girl… she didn't know whatever it was some demonic pheromones or just her caring personality, but Noel found herself liking Seras more and more, yet she didn´t want to think of her as a trustworthy friend as of yet… so far she didn´t do much to earn that trust.

Fate called back to her soon as she spotted a man clad in red down the next hallway.

"Ra…ragna!" She shouted, dashing over to him. "We haven´t seen each other for weeks!"

Ragna´s head turned after he heard his name, but he only groaned in response. He was still a bit mad about that whole "find Noel Vermillion and return her" mission, even if that wasn't Noel's fault. Swallowing his anger, he brought himself to greet his friend. "Hi, Noel. Yeah, its been a while I guess. Been busy, fighting against the world and all. Not right now, though, so if you want to talk…"

Yeah, he won't lose her again just because he rejected her desire to talk. He promised himself that the day he brought her back to senses.

"Yes, well… there is a lot to talk about, isn´t there? Like our new arrival." Noel smiled, standing in front of Ragna with her hands folded behind her back. "I heard you've been working with her already."

"That Seras chick? Yeah. Pretty powerful girl… and damn scary." That`d shut Noel up. If she thought Seras was scary, that was one thing, but if Ragna thought it too… then it must be true.

"I owe her one, though… without her help, I might`ve never gotten Nu back." Leaning against the wall, Ragna looked to the ceiling and sighed. "And funny enough, now that i´ve got her back, I dunno how I managed to live without her."

Noel blinked. Once, twice, three times, then gasped. "You… you mean you're… going out? With Nu?"

"I guess you can call it that." His expression lightened, a smirk crossed his face. "You can imagine her euphoria about it. She made me breakfast this morning, and I didn´t even ask her for it."

"….that's, uh, very romantic?" Noel wasn´t sure what to say, she grinned unsure at his response. "For someone like her, it has to be."

"I'm not a Casanova either, Noel." Ragna chuckled. "So far we didn´t even go out… or have sex together, though knowing Nu, that's not going to take much longer to fix." He grinned at her, stretching his hands like he was about to partake in a gym exam. As he expected, Noel turned beet red and nearly stumbled backwards, squeaking in embarrassment.

"R-ragna! A.. a relationship is about more than just… that!" What was that man thinking?!

"Yeah, I know. Trust me, I know. I didn´t think it could amazing just lying down next to her, watching her fall asleep, feel her breath, her heartbeat… god damn it, i`m getting soft, aren't i." He groaned again, rolling his eyes. "Anyway, what I felt together with her so far- its only the beginning, definitely."

Noel, despite being cherry red, started to smile again, seeing Ragna`s honesty about his feelings. It seemed uncommon for someone like him to talk about it like this… maybe this just meant their friendship was special enough for him to share it with her.

* * *

"Listen up, this is important." Kokonoe looked down upon Seras and Noel an hour after their free time, standing on a little lectern in front of a large monitor. "I need you two to carry out a very, very important mission… Since Terumi is now in possession of the Lynchpin, we need to step up the pace a bit- get to the next part of the plan ahead of him. The Lynchpin cannot be activated without its key, and the key was lost in the midst of time… nobody knows what it is. The only ones who ever seemed to know was Shūichirō Ayatsuki, my grandfather, and Caelica Mercury, my aunt. Both are dead, so we can no longer ask them… but Ayatsuki built the Lynchpin all by himself. Crafting such an artifact alone requires years of planning ahead- he must`ve made some notes."

The screen turned on and showed GPS pictures of a building in the midst of a barren wasteland, a sight like Death Valley, only wider and frighteningly in the shape of a city.

"This used to be their laboratory… built for one specific experiment, which lead to the creation of the Black beast. Thusly, this area is completely covered in seithr. Its so thick down there you're unable to breath and you die within seconds…. Fortunately for you, I've come up with sort of an antidote for the seithr. A medication that makes the body temporarily immune to any sort of seithr influence… but unfortunately also makes him unable to use Ars Magus in return. That's why I've never produced it in masses, in case you're wondering."

Seras sighed. "I was about to ask."

A glare from the professor was the answer to that. "No comment. Anyway, your primary mission objective is Ayatsuki`s journal, where he kept most of his important findings in… we've only found single pages so far, but its an interesting read. Recovering this book is absolutely necessary, and you're free to recover anything else that might prove to be useful. Since the area is uninhabitable, you shouldn´t run into any trouble, but if you do, there's gonna be no backup. Got it?"

They both nodded, Seras crossing her arms in dismay. "So what if we both get killed because your medicine doesn´t work?"

Kokonoe sighed."I know you don´t trust me, but they've been proven to be effective for over fifty years. They're just not very popular due to their side effects."

"Which are...?" Both Seras and Noel asked in unison.

"Some people said they felt sick after being exposed to seithr for long, others reported increased hunger, then there's the Ars Magus thing, some cases of stronger sexual hunger and there was one minor mutation because the body isn´t resistant to radiation during the period you take it in... so we´ll have to decontaminate you after you return. Thats it, really."

Noel blinked, a bit scared. "That sounds dangerous... and, um, stronger.. sexual hunger...?"

Seras also made a face. "Yeah, taking love drugs doesn't sound that great to me either."

The professor groaned. "Its a possible side effect. It doesn't have to happen. And you're a big girl, Seras, you can ignore it, i`m sure of that. Now, any other questions, or can you just get going already?!"

No further concerns were raised, and after they both took one of the pills, with a packet of them in reserve, Seras slung her new rifle over her shoulder.

"I've got about two hundred rounds for this thing stored in my body, Noel.. that might sound a lot, but in a fight, that's literally worth nothing. You can burn through it in a matter of minutes." She also loaded her Royal Guard pistol through, just in case she would need it. Kokonoe said it was an easy mission, but that's what she said last time as well.

"Oh, Kokonoe said my new guns would last a good while before I need to reload them. Something about helical magazines and telescopic ammo and such, I didn´t really understand it." Brandishing her Bolverk-imitations, she holstered one on her back as she noticed Seras looking at it with interest.

"Thats one weird pistol design, if I ever saw one. The grip looks pretty uncomfortable... and it looks unbalanced." Hearing those complaints, Noel handed it over to her, rolling her eyes. "I've been doing good with them so far. See for yourself."

At first glance, Seras was positively surprised. Despite being such a long handgun, it was balanced perfectly... there had to be a pretty long helical magazine in that grip, possibly a hundred rounds with that telescopic ammo she heard about. Grip wise, she was correct though- It felt more like a sword than like a handgun. Something one really had to get used to... and the trigger, if one could call it that, was really misshaped for this kind of grip. But if Noel found it was okay to use... she was the one who had to bother with it. The rest of the gun was pretty straightforward, one lever served as both safety and slide lock at the same time, the gun was hammerless and judging from its barrel had to be about nine millimeter in caliber. But finally, Seras noticed a drastic flaw in the design...

"Noel, tell me, how in the world do you hit anything with this thing if there's no ironsight or scope at all?!" She handed it back to her friend, who smiled rather insecurely. "You'd have to spray and pray all over the place!"

"Well, I guess I am kind of inaccurate with it... but Kokonoe gave it explosive bullets for ammunition, so I guess that makes up for it..."

Seras just decided she didn't want to ask any more. Explosive ammo for a gun you can't aim, with a grip that kills your wrist and a trigger you need to press upwards to fire off a shot... Somehow it felt like weapons technology made a step backwards since her times.

The matter still bugged her, though, throughout the entire time they were on the airplane en route to the ruins of Tokyo.


	8. Dangerous Past, Part 2

**_A/N:_**_ Oh my god that was an epic failure. A chapter a week? Yeah right. Thats what happens when you try to mass produce creativity, DV._

_Anyway, after about a month of focusing on other projects, here it is, the long awaited chapter 8, and the introduction to a new, three part story arc. Blood of the Azure is nearing its halfway point, so expect some big revelations in the near future.  
_

_Near future... that might be a bit of a stretch if i end up failing like this again. This chapter is a bit short, but its the interlude of the arc, so give it time. Aside from this, some updates for the readers-  
_

"Seras x Noel?

Now Way Ho Sey  
stick to the no hugging no kissing policy of the original BlazBlue

plus this is already diverging from Chrono Phantasma anyway  
I mean you dont even go to the part where Noel tries to become Mu-12 anymore and just gave hear a vampiric familiar

and Ragna x Nu-13 is still incest"

_A: This no hugging no kissing policy never existed, Jubei got laid. Besides, we broke that rule in the Black Hearts arc._

_B: Its diverging right from the getgo because Seras doesn`t exist in CP, its an A/U in every sense of the word. Noel will get to be Mu later, probably... its a REALLY stupid plot decision to give your hero a superweapon that cannot be defeated to get the plot rolling faster.  
_

_C: Ragna x Noel is also incest going by this logic. Also i`ll explain later in the fic that its -not- incest, but giving too much away would ruin the suprise.  
_

_Next comment:  
_

_"after thinking for a while i think i would like to see Noel and Seras become a couple but please try not to make their relationship develop too fast."  
_

_I agree, i`ve had some paceing problems with romances in the past. Trying to get it right in this fic.  
_

_Also, the readers have voted: Two readers are pro-yuri, two are against yuri. Guess its up to me in the end, huh?  
_

_Anyway, without further ramble, here`s what you´ve been waiting for all these weeks.  
_

* * *

Rachel Alucard never felt so humiliated before in her whole life.

And yet, that insolent child was correct. What kind of vampire would hide behind servants all the time? They were a proud and ancient race, she didn`t need to fear anyone.

But Rachel dentested the way of the blood. She needed to find another way to overcome this strength difference if the Murakumo was ever going to be destroyed for good.

Valkenhayn offered her help, but sending her old friend in to kill another, not so old friend was no solution, it would merely cause her grief, whoever would die, it didn`t matter in that situation.

It all seemed so easy... she could ask Alucard, the prince of eternal darkness, the No Life King, for advice... he could probably teach her, make her stronger than this Seras child ever will be.

Or she could become strong on her own by following the path the blood laid out for her.. giving in to the temptation would bring her powers beyond compare...

Rachel casted both these ways aside. If she was going to do anything, she would study the magic her father taught her to use.

Shortly after the dropoff point, Seras and Noel found themselves lost in a vast, grey wasteland that used to be a city. Grey concrete dust was spread everywhere, forming sort of a desert terrain that made it hard to breath if a gust of wind stirred it up, and everywhere one could feel the irritating, electric feeling of seithr biting and scratching on the skin.

The radioactivity might´ve gone off by this point, at least for the most part, but seithr had a much, much longer half life than plutonium.

"This.. this is horrible... i knew it must´ve been bad, but.. i never imagined this! This barely even resembles a city anymore." Noel commented, looking about with wide terrified eyes.

„This is a suprise. For a warzone, this is really neat and clean." Seras commented, looking about in the polluted ashes surrounding them.

"Clean?! This is anything but clean- I`ve been here for five minutes and already my skin looks grey from all this stuff. I`m not a diva or anything, but when I get back, I`ll look like a corpse." Noel walked around half blind, her eyes hurting from the dust they kicked up. She just followed straight in Seras`s footsteps, who seemed to have little problem navigating herself blind.

"Like I said, for a warzone, that's rare. At least the kind of wars i`ve been in didn´t look like this."

Seras sighed, memories and images flowing back into her head. Did it look the same here, a hundred years ago? Hard to believe.

"I don´t see any corpses, no skeletons, no bones, rotten flesh, weapons or even vehicles anywhere. And I bet it looks the same under all this dust."

"That... sounds horrifying." Noel stared at her, a bit frightened. "Does… does it always have to be so bloody?"

"War is bloody, Noel." Seras commented as she stumbled over something lying under the dust. She didn`t even want to know what it was, though it was probably just rubble. "Especially the damn Millenium war."

"I… I think i´ve heard briefly about it." The smaller blonde looked up to the vampire. "Wasn´t that where terrorists nearly wiped out London?"

"That's what the newspapers said- the newspapers under control of the government, which in turn was aligned with Hellsing. In truth, it was a fucking army of synthetically made vampires, trained and outfitted to be the elite of Germanys forces in the second world war- the Waffen-SS."

The eyes of the small blonde girl became even wider.

"The NAZIS attacked London back then? Where the hell did they come from?"

Seras closed her eyes, trying to repress the feelings that came up thinking about it.

"South Africa… somewhere in the deepest jungle where no one would suspect them. They came out of nowhere- Sir Hellsing tried to warn the officials, but you can imagine what they thought of the story. Vampire Nazis from the dark continent… nothing a hardass general would ever buy or consider serious. Then, on the night of the 31st December 1999, three gigantic airships appeared in the skies and from that point on, they were unstoppable by any normal means."

Noel shivered as she listened to the story. Just the picture in her head gave her the chills… in the darkest night, with a full moon… and suddenly something huge blocks the view and starts attacking..

"Then… how did you stop them?" She asked, interested, but mortified.

"It wasn´t just me. Back then we had a private army of mercenaries- and the most powerful vampire i`ve seen up to that time, my master Alucard. On the other hand, there was an army of our rivals, the catholic church´s own vampire killers, Section 13, also named Iscariot. They had mobilized nearly 3000 crusaders, fanatical killers dressed in medival armor with modern weapons…"

Seras sighed.

"Iscariot was nearly completely wiped out. The crusaders never had a chance, though Section 13 itself survived for the most part. They might even exist today."

"Th…three thousand people…" Noel`s voice was about to shatter. "How.. how could they do this?"

Seras bit her lip as she tried to repress the answer along with her feelings, but she ended up answering honestly. "That's the nature of the vampire, Noel. We`re born to kill and devour as much as we can… I just keep fighting that instinct." She closed her eyes. "But I think you can see what I mean now. The streets… they were rivers of blood, covered in body parts and empty shell cases. It was the darkest midnight, but you could see without a problem, because every second house burned- their rocket attacks set fire to anything that could burn, including people. That smoke that rose from the city made it impossible to see the sky, and if you got too high up or got trapped, you could choke to death on the fumes. Whats worst though is that it came out of the blue- before anyone knew what was happening the city was closed off. No artillery fire, no soldiers, no tanks, not even jets…. The helicopters of the crusaders only came through because they were hundreds of them." Seras stopped, turning away from Noel.

"Wha…whats wrong?" She asked, hurrying over to her friend.

"Its.. nothing." The face of the draculina was covered in tears. "But whenever I think about it, I think about what I could`ve done to help, but didn`t."

"Seras..." Noel gasped, but the taller girl shrugged her off.

"Nevermind it. It happened a long time ago... there`s no point thinking about it now."

And so she moved on, past the building blocks of a past generation, corroded beyond regonition...

* * *

They had no idea how long the seithr countermeasure would work, but luckily they found what they had looked for soon enough- a massive complex, nearly leveled to the ground.. what they were looking for was underneath the surface anyways, but the outlines of the research insitituion were obvious enough. It was odd- the outlines suggested a huge, fortified position, but it was in the middle of a populated area. One could only imagine why, but Noel guessed it that the surrounding buildings didn`t belong to civilians at all.

"Alright... now lets see how we get in." Seras slung her AK over the shoulder, if they got this far, it was likely there was nothing to fear... the security hatch to the lower levels was open, curiously enough, so they could easily access the main laboratories.

But as soon as they slid down the first ladder, a feeling of dread overwhelmed Seras.

Something that took her breath away, like they stepped into the realm of an angry god that prefered to be left alone.

She sunk to her knees, gasping for air, while Noel stared blankly at the wall- the Murakumo seemed to have a completely different reaction to the sensation.

After about a minute, it was gone again, and a sense of danger followed in its wake. In an instant, the rifle was back in her hands, and she checked the chamber if it was loaded.

It probably wouldn`t help against what just happened to them anyway, but Seras felt safer with a gun in her hand.

"Noel...? Everything okay?" She nudged the shoulder of her master, who then snapped out of her stare.

"Huh? ...yes... yes, i´m fine... I... lets... lets just go."

"Right. Lets get this done as quickly as we can."

* * *

"So let me get this straight, Kokonoe." Ragna growled, staring daggers into the scientists eyes. "You sent Noel into the area where the Black Beast emerged? To a lab that houses a cauldron?! God fucking damnit, woman, are you out of your mind or something?!"

His outrage didn`t change Kokonoe`s deadpan expression, and she made a suckling noise as she continued to nibble on her lollipop.

"Keep your voice down, you ape. The other options were to sent Tager- He wouldn`t have fit through the entrance. Sending Makoto would be risky as hell, the last time I sent her to a cauldron she nearly caused a time paradox. And sending either you or Nu-13 would lead to extreme consequences... I don`t know how much of the beast is currently awake inside either of you, but sending you to its breeding ground isn`t a good idea in any way. So, keep your voice down and get off my damn back. I`m trying my best here."

Grunting, Ragna crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

"If Noel is affected by the other Murakumos that died there..."

Kokonoe sighed in annoyance.

"Look, Ragna, thats why I sent Seras as well. She can handle any sort of danger they might encounter, excluding the Black Beast, but she`s as dumb as they make them. Noel is a shy little bugger but she knows what we`re looking for. Trust me on this- They`ll get the job done before you pee your pants."

"I hope. Or else I might have to cut your head off."


	9. Dangerous Past, Part 3

**_A/N: _**_Here`s chapter 9, the chapter that all the others were building up to. Chapter 10 is going to be the last of the Dangerous Past arc, and it makes the halfway point for our story. I`ve written this down in 40 minutes after watching Die Hard 5, so i hope its good enough for you guys._

_One last bit i have to get out of the way, for legal reasons- The log entry that Seras reads later in the chapter has been translated out of Blazblue Phase 0 by zephyr07 on dustloop. His translation is fricking awesome, and you should all check it out in case you haven`t yet. Just google Blazblue Short Stories, it should lead you to the dustloop topic._

_And now, without further ramble, lets continue._

* * *

A foul stench, along with the lingering feeling that they weren´t welcome, escorted Noel and Seras through the underground laboratory of the Sin Architects. One of the oldest laboratories they had, and the only one they`ve abandoned, sixty feet underground and safe from the nuclear strikes that wiped out the city above... still, both Noel and Seras could feel they weren`t alone here.

Noel, for one, didn`t believe in ghosts, but the voices she heard, whispering in the shadows, seemed almost.. familiar to her. Everytime she heard one, a chill ran down her spine, and as she accidently knocked over a glass bottle, making it shatter into a million pieces on the ground, Seras turned around in a microsecond, aiming her rifle at the bottle and groaned.

"Watch your step, Noel. And calm down. No one here is alive anymore... including me." She said, grabbing the wrist of her friend and dragging her along.

She was scared herself, but not to the point where she was trembling and knocking things over. Being scared was part of her job- if you feared something, you looked out for it... cocky idiots just died once they 'd stop paying attention.

A skeleton sitting near a desk caught her eye. The man seemed to have suffered no injuries whatsoever, but the way he was sitting on the desk, it seemed like he just fell asleep.. never to wake up again. The black beast must´ve gotten him, stripping his flesh off of his bones... or maybe he just died from the seithr exposure and rotted away over the years.

After a good half hour, they ended this linear sequence of scares as Seras turned on the backup generator- the nuclear powered source kicked in, and finally, some light shed down upon the place.

"God damn. I can see in the dark, but that was giving me the creeps, too." Seras admited, letting go of Noel at last. "Lets have a look around- that guy`s diary must be here around somewhere."

The shorter blonde girl nodded, breathing out a sigh of relief... but the voices were still calling her.

"Do you... hear those voices too?"

The vampiress stopped for a second, trying to listen to anything that might`ve startled her... but shrugged.

"I`ve never met a ghost, but i wouldn`t be suprised if this place was actually haunted. I`d like to get this done as fast as we can... and take a long shower after this."

Her skin started to itch a bit, maybe the countermeasure against seithr didn`t work for this much of it... or the radiation was getting to her. Either way, this had to be done soon, or Noel might face the consequences.

Damn Kokonoe. Why couldn`t she do this herself? She didn´t know all that much about the dark war, nothing, in fact, but she couldn`t die from this.

* * *

With this, the two girls started to look for anything that might contain a diary- any cupboard, desk drawer, equipment cabinet was scuttled through as fast and as clean as they could, searching room after room... from time to time, Seras started to hear things too, faint whispers that didn´t seem to be human... while Noel already heard them clear as day, and frankly it was driving her insane.

The voices demanded vengence, they wanted to destroy what created them, humanity, mankind, anyone that caused them their pain and misary... Noel`s emotions ran wild, but so far she found herself able to control them.

"Please... just... find that diary and get it over with..."

Coming across the large, empty room that once housed the cauldron, Seras let out a small sigh. This had to be it, that place where the black beast came from... the grief of billions clung to this place, death and destruction followed the wake of that monster... that manmade monster.

Close to the far end of the room, behind a large drawer, she finally came across the thing they`ve been looking for all this time- an open notebook, the pen next to it still open and ready to write.

She scanned through the last entry, blowing across the page to clear it off from the dust of a century.

"What is that thing.  
What the hell is that. Why has it come to this? Why.  
From the depths of the cauldron, something black began to flow out.  
Something I didn't comprehend.  
Relius, he said that wasn't the Kusanagi. That Relius was swallowed up by the black thing too... and he disappeared.  
Is he dead?  
Tell me Relius. Tell me what am I supposed to do now.  
Did we create that thing?  
No that's not it. That thing is...  
The Gates of Sheol.  
That thing isn't something that comes from this world.  
What do I do, now that things are like this.  
That's right.  
The lynchpin.  
I created it specifically for times like this.  
But I don't have the key now.  
The key... somehow it slipped from my grasp. But how?  
I can no longer do anything anymore.  
All I can do now is just wait for my life to end... "

Seras closed the notebook with a short sigh, then stuffed it into her breast pocket. The lynchpin, hm? Slowly it all started to make sense why Kokonoe thought this was important. If that thing would`ve been powerful enough to stop the black beast, it would be powerful enough to stop anything.

It was then when she noticed the yellow eyes that watched her.

"Why, hello there, miss. Didn`t think there was someone still alive in here." A man dressed in black said, walking over to her slowly and smoothly. "Ah, what am i saying. You must be looking for something here, correct?"

Seras turned around, eyeing the man once- then she instantly knew he was up to no good. Those eyes told her the whole story, even if he kept them shut the moment she saw them.

"Maybe. I don´t think i want to tell you that, Mister." Seras responded, moving towards him just as slowly. It was a technique she learned from her master quite early- when someone tries to intimidate you in this manner, respond in the same way to show you`re challanging him rather than being afraid.

"So hostile? Well, i might as well tell you who i am and what i`m doing here, then." He coughed, straightening his coat. "I`m Captain Hazama from the NOL Intelligence department- we`ve detected some unususal activity, so they`ve sent me over to investigate. Thats the whole story." He smirked at her, inviteingly asking about her story. "Are you going to tell me your name, young lady?"

"Don`t see why not. Its not going to help your investigation, though." Seras kept herself well guarded, not letting those flirtarious attempts get through to her. If they did, that "intelligence officer" might get to know the things he wanted to hear. "I`m Captain Seras Victoria of the Royal armed forces, special operations divison Hellsing. I`m investigating myself, but i just found what i`ve been looking for, so i`m leaving."

"You`ve found what you´ve been looking for? Good. Well then, nothing to report to headquarters afterall." Hazama turned on his heel, smirking widely. "Other than that the presumed dead spawn of the vampire Alucard raised from her grave and robbed the grave of Shuchiro Ayatsuki and his fellow scientists."

Seras stopped dead in her tracks, a bit shocked. Almost a hundred years after Hellsings disengagement they still knew her?

A feeling of dread overcame her, and in the corner of her eye, she saw something flashing light. A wooshing sound later, her vampireic senses kicked in and she turned around, smacking the flying blade out of the air and into a nearby computer monitor.

"So you want to kill me now, Mr Hazama?" Seras responded, grabbing her rifle and wrapping the finger around the trigger. "What did i do to you?"

"Nothing in preticular. I just need Ayatsuki`s log, and you can go." Hazama responded, still as overly happy and flirtarious as ever.

"I`m afraid thats not an option."

"Then i`m afraid were done here. I`ll just get the log from your dead body, then."

With this, three blades flashed from his coat pockets and flew towards Seras- in the fraction of a second, her rifle was pointed at them and shot them down with single, precise shots, the shards of metal peppering the surroundings.

Using this distraction, Hazama had rushed forward, slashing at Seras with a curved blade- the Oroburos- only to get blocked by the rifle´s body.

"Sorry, but i`ll be leaving with the log." Seras responded, pushing Hazama into a stop while his blade was stuck between gun body and magazine. "Goodbye."

Her left brought up her Royal Guard pistol and fired a round into his forehead, knocking the man backwards ... but instead of collapsing, Hazama started to cackle loudly.

"Heheheh~ thats some bitchy attitude for an old granny like you. Too bad, its just not the kinda bitch i like!" Hazama`s eyes were open now, his hair spiked up a bit- the total change in behavior gave it off obviously enough- This wasn`t Hazama anymore. This was someone else entirely.

* * *

Noel, a few rooms past them, had stopped dead in her tracks as rifle rounds and then a pistol one were fired off with booming echos that hurt her ears. Something had gotten to Seras... something that wasn`t a ghost. A stab in her heart told her that if she didn`t act and get to her now, she might never see her again... little did she know that it wasn`t her she should be worried about.

The voices were yelling at her at this point, growling and groaning curses towards the humans... the same kind of curses she heard herself say a few weeks prior, when she was known as Mu-12, the Godslayer. She didn`t want to hear it. She didn`t want to hear any of it. But the fear for Seras made her ears deaf for those noises...

With what felt like superhuman speed, she arrived at the scene- only to see Seras firing a full magazine into her nemesis, Terumi Yuuki.

The man in black stumbled and was knocked back a few steps, but aside from a few holes in his coat and a burn mark on his shirt, he was entirely unfazed. The life link was doing its job quite well.

"Was that all? Is that all you can do, girlie?! The offspring of Alucard, the No Life King, a legend among monsters, can´t do anything more?!" He tossed Oroburos at her face, its serpentine claws trying to clamp down on her soul and affect her spirits, but she dodged with a leap to the side, letting Oroburos crash against the wall instead.

"I`m not even getting warmed up, you amateur." She growled in return. "If you want to make my blood boil, try something more creative."

"Seras!" Noel finally cried out, rushing over to her friend, but Seras held out her hand, telling her to stay away.

"There`s nothing you can do here, Noel. This guy isn´t your normal kind of opponent. Monsters are always defeated by humans... but i regret to say it, Noel, you don`t have that kind of willpower to stand against him." The vampiress gritted her teeth, racking through the action of her rifle to chamber a fresh round from the magazine she just inserted. "I`ll have to get serious in a moment here, so stay back."

"But... Hazama is..."

The man in question grinned at Noel, and her sheer horror was perfect. His glance felt like two daggers boring into her eyes and carving them out, same as his giggle.

"So you`re here too, Ex-Lieutenant Vermillion? Or should i say- failed experiment? I`ve never seen a Murakumo perform this well and yet fail so miserably. I regret to inform you, but... i don´t NEED you anymore! So do me a favor and just die!"

Blades flew towards her face, followed by a flying kick- neither managed to hit the girl, as Seras`s arm first caught the knives in her flesh, then knocked Hazama to the ground as her arm hit his solarplexus.

He fell to the ground, only to be greeted by a long burst of rifle rounds in his face... his hand grabbed the leg of the vampire, tossing her aside like a ragdoll.

"Okay, now you`ve done it." Terumi responded, getting back up. "I was already pretty pissed off because you ruined my coat, but now you`re just trying to make me angry."

Seras recovered quickly, crawling back onto her feet, but she didn`t realize what she started yet.

"Alright then, lets play nasty. Restriction 666 released.. Dimensional Interference Forcefield deployed!"

A trembling went through the building, and a massive surge of energy passed them by. The hair on Seras`s back was standing up, and now she started to see what was going on.

"Oh, crap."

"Code S.O.L. Blazblue.."

A final surge of energy rushed through the room, then exploded into a powerful aura that surrounded Terumi.

"...activate!"


	10. Dangerous Past, Part 4

**A/N:**_ Okay, here`s chapter 10- basically, this is the first half of the story. It's possible that the second half will be longer in length, but i don´t want to drag it out for -too- long... it might die if i run out of ideas._

_This chapter actually goes into M-rating territory later, so if you´re not comfortable with that, skip it please. It's not very long, anyway._

_Here ends the Dangerous Past story arc, the past is unveiled and part of it is brought to the present time. The next chapter will likely feature a lot of Seras and Noel, and possibly a lot of Ragna and Nu as well. We haven`t seen those two in a while now, haven`t we?_

_At any rate, without further ramble, let's go._

* * *

At times like these, Seras wished for the old days in Hellsing to return… only one order to follow, and the only life she had to worry about was her own, all others were expendable.

Right now, she had two orders to follow- ensure the safety of Noel Vermillion and secure the personal log of Shuchiro Ayatsuki- something she had already discovered and was holding on to.

What the briefing didn´t warn her about was the enemy she was facing- that green haired, suit clad "gentleman" named Hazama… one of the many names Terumi Yuuki used as a disguise.

But she didn´t know that, and as such, she was completely off guard when Terumi used virtually the same release code Ragna previously used to unlock the Azure Grimiore`s power… something remarkably similar to the Cromwell seal. Possibly not by coincidence, but curiosity was pushed aside by the sheer overwhelming urge to survive she was feeling, the shivering of her body in tone with the pulsating of Terumi`s life leeching aura.

"Kyahahaahaha~ Whats the matter, big girl? Are you afraid of me, all of the sudden? Please, Bella, we can`t be together, i´m too dangerous!"

Seras caught the whimsical reference to an old book series revolving around the forbidden romance between a vampire and a teenage girl, and shrugged it off. Her left arm had turned itself into blood matter, ready to become any weapon required, but with the hypersonic bullets of her rifle leaving no effect at all, she doubted it would do her much good in this "released" state of his.

Safe to say, he wasn´t one to wait for his opponent to make the first move- as the snake head on a chain, the true form of Oroburos, raced towards Noel, Seras leaped in front of the smaller girl to catch the biting chain in her hip, a sharp pain and a feeling of dreadful sorrow invading her mind.

What the hell was that? For the brief moment the snake pierced her, she felt utterly helpless and alone, wounded and tired, unable to go on… it reminded her… of that day… those two days…

"Ooooh, was that a delicious memory just now? Tee-hee, little vampire, lets see if we can dig more of that up!"

A second attack was launched by him, something Seras avoided by simply grabbing Noel and sidestepping at superhuman speed- something an average person would describe as a teleport.

"My memories are none of your business." Seras snarled, discarding her useless rifle on a nearby desk. If she was to win this, she would have to rely on her physical abilities.

"Seras… don`t…! Even you… even you can`t win against him!" Noel warned her, her breath failing on her in the sheer terror and fear she had of that man, the man that showed her the true nature of her kind a few weeks prior.

"I`ve struggled with worse odds, Noel." Seras grunted, eyeing the attacker intensively. "Take my rifle and head for the door, i`ll follow as soon as I can. He´ll never be as fast as I am, we`ll just lock him in down here." She whispered, unaware of Terumi`s abilities to teleport himself over short ranges, and long ranges with Phantom´s aid.

"Seras… that's.. that's not going to work…" Noel whispered, also forgetting this part, but generally discouraged given the situation.

"Sacrificing yourself as the hero to let her escape, eh?" Terumi`s grin widened into a grimace. "Don´t worry. You won`t have to- you`ll both die down here." Of course he didn´t forget about the life link that connected him with Noel, and her bond with the Azure that gave her limitless lifeforce- but he´d say anything to scare her even further… and instead of talking all the way, he shot his Oroburos chain at the ceiling, flying over to Seras to decapitate her with one of his knives.

"Tricky bastard, are you…" She responded, her left arm forming a blade to parry his.

"You don´t know the half of it." Just as she was about to grab him and toss him into the nearest wall, a spring operated knife hidden in his sleeve rammed itself into her jugular, something which Terumi thought to be a fitting way to die for a vampire.

However, as he was about to find out, adult Nosferatus regenerated much faster than infantile Tremere such as Rachel- the moment the blade left her flesh, the wound started to close.

A grin from Seras was the answer, and her eyes slowly started to glow. She was in control of her vampireic side, but letting loose every once in a while was necessary and, in times like these, useful.. her arm, previously used to parry the weapons, transformed into a claw and attempted to rip Terumi to pieces, but the sharp ends failed to penetrate his skin, only clutching onto him as she threw him headfirst into a nearby wall.

"Seras…" Noel whispered, but the vampire didn´t respond. She kept her back at Noel, trying her damn hardest to protect the shorter female and fighting Terumi at the same time- a feat that was no easy task.

"That aura of yours… it steals life force, doesn`t it." Seras commented as Terumi got back up from the ground. "I was wondering why I felt like I was weakening every second i´ve been enclosed in it."

"Why, obviously." Terumi retorted, almost sarcastic in tone. "Can´t you tell? My enemies can´t hurt me, but I hurt them plenty. And I –like- it." A barrage of knives flying her direction followed that sentence, and Terumi stormed forward to get in reach of her again… without Seras being able to react to it, however, Noel raised her guns from behind Seras and fired at him, blasting the knives in midair to drive them off of their path, then stopping Terumi´s advance and temporarily disabling his aura.

The aura was gone everytime he was hit…? Seras decided to keep that in mind, though she still had no idea how to inflict damage on this guy.

"Noel! Keep your head down!" Seras yelled at her, but the small girl already cartwheeled out from behind her, firing off short bursts from her pistols while she recoiled off of a wall with a jump. She could see what she was trying to do- disabling his aura for long enough until she would find something to beat him with, but that was easier said than done... hmmm..

A support beam hanging above them came into her vision. That might do it...

Her left arm extended onto it, clutching to it on almost its entire length, then breaking it out of its support- she ripped an AA gun out of the Milleniums flagship once, this was nothing compared to it. Oh, how she wished to have an Eight-Eight right now.

"Here`s something to stuff your big mouth with!" With a battle growl, she launched the beam into his direction- Terumi actually looked quite shocked, but a second later his trademark grin reappeared.

The impact left a lot of dust getting kicked up from the walls, consoles, desks and the surrounding area- the entire wall he was flown into was broken into pieces, and just a few seconds later, Terumi reemerged from behind the crack in the wall.

Limping, spitting blood, but breathing and alive.

"Hehh... that... wasn`t bad. You... certainly caught me off guard with that, girl... but that's not enough." His grin grew wider, and Seras just realized she was out of options. If this didn`t hurt him in the slightest- her only choice was to bite him, and she really wasn`t fond of the rotting blood of her foes.

Thankfully, a blade slashed down towards Terumi, who was now even more shocked than before. Blocking the cut with his own two knives, he was knocked back a bit, and had to parry a second slice from a second blade the moment afterwards.

"You...!" He snapped, breathless.

"You are an eyesore I thought I could go without this time. Damnit, I might actually have to work to kill those two now."

The new arrival said nothing in return, as he landed in front of the two women, fangs baring from his feline face.

"Sorry ta disappoint, Terumi, but this old cat ain`t gonna let you do that."

Old cat... cat was right. Seras could do nothing but stare at the oversized housecat standing on its hind legs, holding a sword with two tails and a second in its teeth.

Its paws were concealed by large sleeves of the coat he was wearing, bearing weapons of its own- two huge metal claws extending from the sleeves themselves.

The hood of his coat made it difficult to see his face from her standpoint, but... she actually had a shiver running down her spine from his surprisingly manly, gruff voice- nothing she would`ve expected an intelligent, bipedal cat to sound like.

"Mr Jubei! Thank goodness you`re here!" Noel exclaimed, which Seras noted as 'she knows who he is' and lowered her guard around him again.

"Just passin' through, Noel. Could already tell Terumi would try ta get the notes on the Lynchpin sooner or later, if he`d be that damn interested in the thing." The cat named Jubei grunted. "Didn`t think he´d try to kill you, though."

"You didn`t..? You`re smart enough to figure out I would want his log, and you wouldn´t think I would get rid of a tool thats no longer useful to me?" Terumi snarled disappointedly, spinning his blades in his hands as Jubei launched another attack on him.

The cat`s attack pattern seemed random and downright insane- fighting with four weapons, four entirely different weapons not to mention, was Seras couldn`t even imagine to do.

Yet, Terumi blocked, deflected and avoided the blows and slashes like he`d done so for ages. However, Jubei kept the pressure on him high enough, he couldn`t do anything to counter attack. She didn`t even think about aiding him- firing into his attack pattern to hit Terumi might distract him too much.

"Yer not gonna find anythin useful here, Terumi. Ayatsuki took most of the secrets to his grave, and without the key, yer never gonna be able to use the Lynchpin." Jubei mentioned, keeping the pressure high.

"What makes you think I want to -use- the Lynchpin, huh? Its just as primitive as everything else that man designed. A big rock with powerful magic enchanted on it... give me a break." He huffed, rolling his eyes. "The thing Relius is building can´t even be compared to it- The lynchpin is just like a light switch, turning the boundary on and off. Our device is more like a switchboard... no, not even that. More like a whole computer. Can you imagine that?! Manipulating the boundary to deliver energy wherever you want it to, doing things Ayatsuki wouldn`t even dream about... if we`re not careful, we might bring all those who died in the dark war back to life. Gee, won´t that suck, right?"

Jubei just kept quiet and slashed at him, pressing him out of the room. "Ayatsuki might`ve been a madman, but you two are worse. I reckon its not even yer own motives... more like, hers."

"Geez, give me a break. I can´t kill all of you at the same time!" The green haired man sighed, retreating further, much to his annoyance. As Seras and Noel advanced in Jubei`s back, he sighed even deeper.

This was not going to end well... oh, who cares. So long as he dodged Musashi good enough...

But then, an ice cold hand was planted on his shoulder, and he looked up to see into the concealed face of Phantom, who had appeared right behind him to bring him out.

"What?! Phantom, I didn`t call you here! Get lost, I need to-"

Without being able to finish his sentence, the ghost disappeared with him in another portal, leading back to the throne room underneath the unfinished Nemesis Horizon.

To -her- throne room.

* * *

"Oh my god, thank you so much Mr Jubei..!" Noel squealed as soon as her guns were holstered. She didn´t give him time to sheath his, instead she just ran over and hugged the cat... Seras actually felt jealous somehow, seeing that. She worked her ass off to let them escape, but the guy who appeared in the last second gets all the praise. Actually, she was used to it by now- for some reason, the vampires always seemed to draw the shortest straw- in a way, that made Ragna sympathetic to her. He too never received any praise from what she could tell.

"Ah, nothin to thank me for, Noel. Ol' me just happened to pass through." Jubei responded with a laugh, patting her head after he retracted his claws. "Now now, no need to get all worked up. Yer safe now."

His gaze turned to Seras, and just now she noticed that he was missing an eye... or at least, one of them was covered by an eyepatch.

"Yer a damn lunatic, tryin to kill Terumi with a slab of metal like that." He chuckled, though he wasn`t seriously scolding her. "Good one, though. Didn`t try that myself yet. But lemme give you a warning- Terumi ain`t no fool. He wouldn´t show up without knowing he`d win in the end... and with ordinary guns like those, yer not gonna make his annoyin smirk go away."

His swords slid into their sheaths, the one he had in his mouth was simply tossed into the air, landing in the scabbard as if guided by magic.

"Yeah, I noticed that too. He took sixty, seventy bullets without a scratch on him." Seras commented, slinging the rifle she brought onto her back again. "Thanks for that, though. I don`t die so easily, but he might´ve hurt Noel... or killed her."

The smaller girl lowered her head a bit... maybe it was time she told Seras who she really was, that she didn`t die of something like that either... but then she noticed that the voices she heard were back. Judging by Seras´s expression, she heard them too...

"Mr Jubei, do you hear that?!" She gasped, a bit out of breath.

The old beastman nodded.

"The Murakumos ain´t very happy about our visit here... seems like Terumi intimidated them just enough so that they`d hide for a while, but i`m 'fraid if we stick around here too long, they`ll do things to us you don´t even want to imagine. So for now, lets just get outta here."

Seras nodded in agreement, a cold shudder rushing down her back. "Right. I`ll radio Kokonoe and tell her we`re ready for pickup."

The name Kokonoe made Jubei twitch, and he eyed Seras carefully, before he decided it was no longer his business.

His daughter had made a lot of mistakes, siding with Alucards offspring might not be the worst of them.

* * *

Facing the Imperator Librarius, Terumi groaned in disgust. His coat tails were shredded and his hat was missing, this was no shape he wanted to be seen in, least of all by her.

But since he was summoned here, it was not like he had a choice.

"Greetings, Terumi." She spoke. "It seems like your quest was not awarded with success."

"No, but I would´ve gotten the fucking thing if it wasn`t for Phantom." He growled, crossing his arms. "Sure the cat was there, but he was the only real threat down there. That vampire whore couldn`t even hurt me."

The crimson eyes of the purple haired woman narrowed, and her small body ascended from her throne. Terumi twitched, seeing the royal stand up was never a good sign.

"Not only did you fail the task I bestowed you with, you have also told our fiercest enemy part of our plans."

"Big deal. As if the cat didn`t already know." He groaned, rolling his eyes. "Rachel tells him everything anyway."

Her eyes were still stern, but her tone dropped a notch, both in volume and in language. "And there was the risk of losing you involved. The Nox Nyctores Musashi is a serious threat to you."

His eyes met hers, and a smirk appeared.

"So thats what this is about. You were worried about me?"

"Do not be so full of yourself, Servant. I simply cannot afford to lose you."

Terumi Yuuki slowly walked towards the woman, grinning slightly until his hand reached out- caressing her cheek.

"Or maybe you don`t -want- to lose me."

The royal`s expression softened a bit.

"Maybe. I`m not obligated to tell you my thoughts."

"Nope. Your eyes say everything you wanna say."

"Then you know what i`m about to do?"

He opened his eyes wider, his yellow snake eyes meeting her crimson rubies.

"You`ve excused all the guards and Phantom is off to rest, Relius is doing field work and you`ve summoned me here, of all places... I don´t even need to guess."

A smirk appeared on the girls face.

"Correct."

And with that, her robes slid off of her frail body, exposing her pale, but toned body- even though she was small and vulnerable, her muscles and curves were a perfect work of art.

While her chest was not the most impressive, her legs, belly and her face resembled more a painting than any normal person. Her firm, well rounded buttocks and trained back didn´t leave anything to wish for, either... between her collarbones, dead center under her neck, the reason for this remarkable beauty was tattooed into her satin skin- the symbol of the Murakumo project, and the number one.

"You never cease to amaze me, Saya." Terumi purred, running his eyes up and down on the naked girl in front of him. She, in the meantime, helped herself and opened his trousers, discarding his double belt into the corner and pulling down the zipper with her teeth.

"I hope so. If you´d be bored with me, I would have to take drastic measures... to make you feel excited." Her eyes peeked up at the hard, thick shaft that sprung up into her face. "...but it seems thats not necessary yet."

"Nah, i`m fine." Terumi smirked, running his fingers through her long ponytail. "So is this going to be just another session where you have your fun with me, or do I get to do something too this time?"

Gentle strokes of her tongue, trailing up and down his throbbing member made him gasp for air in the middle of that sentence, and her slender, delicate fingers tracing his length didn´t help it either. A devious, downright devilish smirk was the answer.

"Next time, Terumi, I shall be yours. But you`ve failed your mission... I will have to punish you."

As her mouth engulfed his length, Terumi just turned off his usual personality and let himself go. Even assholes needed some time out every once in a while.

* * *

Kokonoe didn`t react to the incoming radio transmission, in fact, she ignored the blinking red light on her switchboard. "Tager, answer that call. Its probably just Noel and Seras anyway. I`m preparing the time-space rift."

"Roger that." Tager responded, linking his hardware with the switchboard to answer the call directly. "This is Tager. …. alright. We`ll EVAC you as soon as possible, try to find a serviceable landing strip for the jet in the meantime. ….no, we can`t get you out right now."

The cat girl groaned loudly. "Just tell them we`ll be there in an hour."

"We`ll pick you up in an hour. ...alright, got it." Tager closed the communications channel and looked at his superior. "They`ve secured Ayatsuki`s log... and they`ve obtained information about Terumi`s plans."

A smirk- Kokonoe liked it when things went right for once. "Hell yes. Sector Seven one, NOL nothing. Actually, if this works, thats TWO for us and zero for them!" The screen finally showed that the pre-rupture checklist was complete, and the teleporter was ready to proceed.

"Okay~ Connection through the Boundary established, date, place and person locked on. Lets do this. Three... two... one... and, click!"

Her left hand slammed onto a big red button, while she pulled a small lever slowly upwards with the other. The transporter hissed, coming to life- for a second the room was dipped into the total darkness of the boundary, then the machine shut down again... and on its transportation pad stood Caelica A. Mercury, younger sister of the legendary Nine and daughter of Shuchiro Ayatsuki.

Kokone grinned widely in triumph while the young brunette witch looked about rather confusedly... this was the second strike against them.

With Seras`s information and Caelica`s memory, obtaining the Lynchpin itself was merely optional.

"Okay, Tager... i`m feeling generous today. Tell the pilot to get his ass moving and pick them up right away. I need to celebrate something."

She walked over to the new arrival, holding out her hand for a greeting.

"Welcome in the 23rd century, Auntie."


End file.
